John Jones Winston Will

Will Book C (1842-1864), Greene County, Alabama, page 223

Will of John Jones Winston (1785-1850), filed with the Probate Court of Greene County, Alabama. Copy procured by Tom Alquist, initial transcription by John M. Winston, Jr. September, 2005, reviewed and edited by Gene Winston and Tom Alquist.

Begin transcription
{left margin notation} John J Winston Will

State of Alabama )) I John J Winston of the County and
Greene County )) State aforesaid being of sound mind
and memory do make and ordain this My last Will and
Testament hereby revoking all other heretofore made by me.
 

First: I give and bequeath to my wife Susan Winston my
negro man John & Amey his Wife and their four children to have
and to hold, absolutely, and in her own right;
 

Second: I give to my daughter Elizabeth Whiting the following
named negroes viz. Isaac & Martha his wife & their five children
Franklin, Margaret, Washington, Phoeby, and Isaac, to have & to
Hold to her & her heirs;

Third: The balance of my property {end of page}

{new page} {left margin notation “224”}
of every description, real, personal, & mixed I give and bequeath
to my wife Susan Winston to hold and use for the benefit of
herself & her three sons Anthony, Fontain, & Lafayette Winston
during her natural life, and at her death it is my will
and desire that Said property as so much of it as may
remain be equally divided between my Said three Sons, and
if my wife Susan Winston shall think proper. Think proper
during her life to apportion off any of Said property to my
Said sons Anthony, Fontain, & Lafayette is my will & desire
that an equal proportion be given to each so that they may
share alike in the final division;
 

Fourth; I do hereby constitute and appoint my wife Susan
Winston Executrix of my Last Will & Testament, and for the
purpose of enabling her to settle up my business to the best
advantage. I do hereby authorize also empower her to sell
and dispose of either publicly or privately any sale of
my lands and execute conveyances for the same, and to sell
and dispose of any other property which may be necessary
to pay my debts as to advance the interest of herself &
children;
 

Fifth: It is my will and desire that my wife Susan Winston
be permitted to qualify as my Executrix without security
being required of her by the Court~

In testimony whereof I have here to affixed my hand and
Seal this Eighth day of December, AD 1849
Signed and Sealed in the presence of
Wm F Pierce {signature} )) John J Winston ((Seal)) {signature}
Wiley J. Carnes {signature}))
Nathaniel L Allen {signature}))

The State of Alabama )) Probate Court Regular Session
Greene County)) August 12th 1850

Be it remembered that on this the 12th day of August AD
1850. Before the Judge of the Probate Court of Greene County in
the State of Alabama came Susan Winston, who says she is
nominated sole Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of John
J. Winston, deceased, and produced here to the court a writing
purporting to be the last will and testament of the said John
J. Winston, dec’d, and presented the same for Probate, and it
appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the said testator
was a resident Citizen of the County of Greene aforesaid
and departed this life in Said county on the day of
1850, and it further appearing that all the heirs at Law of
Said Testator residing in this State have had due and legal folio
of this application by Citations served upon them, whereupon
the court caused to come before it William F. Pierce and Wiley J. {end of page}

{begin new page}
Carnes, two of the subscribing witnesses to the said will, who being first
duly sworn by an Oath that they were present on the day when
the Said will purported to have been signed by the Said Testator, that
the Testator signed Said Will in the presence of the Said Witnesses
Pearce (sic) and Carnes and in the presence of the other subscribing
Witness Nathaniel L. Allen and published and declared the same,
to be his last Will and Testament, and they the Said Witnesses
signed their names thereon in the presence of the Said Testator at
his request and in the presence of each other, said they the said witnesses
further declare and say that at the time of the making and
publishing said writing as his last will and testament the
Said Testator was of sound and disposing mind and memory.

It is therefore Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed by this Court
that the Said Writing be admitted to Probate, as the Last Will
and Testament of the Said John J. Winston, deceased, that the
same be recorded and the original remain in offices as
required by law, the said Will having been duly presented to
the satisfaction of this Court,
Attest J.R. Evans, Judge

{End Transcription}

Transcriber’s notes:
This copy was not from an original document, but a copy in the Will Book in Greene County. The signature on the copy does not match others on record for John J. Winston, most notably the Marriage Bond on file in the Metropolitan Archives of Nashville, Tennessee.

John Jones Winston was born in Buckingham County, Virginia on May 31,1785, the second son of Captain Anthony Winston, III and Keziah Walker Jones. The extended family migrated (to claim Anthony Winston’s bounty land from his service in the Revolutionary War) from the family plantation, Hunting Towers, near New Store, Buckingham County, Virginia to Wilson County, Tennessee in late 1801. The migration included Anthony’s brothers William and Isaac, and his brothers-in-law Joel, John, and Arthur Jones, and their families, household goods, and slaves. The wagon train had to be enormous.

The family lived near Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee until they moved to Nashville (Davidson County) in about 1804 to a plantation next to the Hermitage. John Jones Winston married his first cousin Mary Walker “Polly” Jones in Williamson County, Tennessee on January 17, 1807.

John Jones Winston and Polly Jones Winston had the following children:
1. John Milton Winston 1808-1847 (m. Lucy Norfleet Smith)
2. Minerva West Winston 1810-1882 (m. William Winter Payne)
3. Elizabeth E. Winston 1816-? (m. Dr. Peter Whiting, Mr. William E. Morgan)
4. Mary Francis Winston 1817-1843 (m. Dr. Madison Bruce Posey)

The family next migrated to Huntsville, Alabama in 1811. They continued to engage in land speculation and commerce until the War of 1812. Responding to the request of General Jackson, Anthony Winston III helped raise a company of cavalry. John Jones Winston was elected Captain, while his older brother Anthony Winston IV served as Lieutenant and Isaac Winston served as First Sergeant; other younger brothers served in the Company as well. They were attached to the Second Tennessee Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Gunmen under Colonel John Coffee as Winston’s Company from Madison County (note: the term “Mounted Gunmen” was to distinguish them from “Lancers”). The company fought in the Battles of Tallushatchee, Talladega, and Horseshoe Bend (where John was wounded), and later the Battle of New Orleans, defending General Jackson’s exposed left flank.

After the War of 1812 ended and John returned to Huntsville, the Indian Cession left millions of acres open to settlement and speculation, and speculate he did, acquiring thousands of acres that are recorded with the Bureau of Land Management. After General John Coffee surveyed and laid out the City of Big Springs, now Tuscumbia, the Winston family migrated there in 1817.

Polly Winston died in about 1819, and John Jones Winston was left with four children and in need of a wife. He met and married the daughter of Randall Johnston, a lawyer originally from Duplin, NC, 19-year old Susan Johnston. They were married on April 20, 1820 in Nashville, Tennessee.

John Jones Winston and Susan Johnston Winston had the following children:
5. Anthony Winston 1823-? (m. Catherine E. Moseley)
6. George White Winston 1825-1827
7. Anne C. (Cornelia?) Winston 1830-? (m. Stephen Parks Winston)
8. Lafayette Winston 1833-1919 (m. Rebecca Catherine Cooper Moseley)
9. Fountain Winston 1835-1905 (m. Christina Rebecca Moseley)

Susan Winston was listed as a founding member of the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscumbia, and was enumerated in the 1850 census of Greene County.

In 1833, the John Jones Winston migrated from Franklin County to Greene County, and settled in Mount Hebron beat. He was elected for a term to the Alabama House of Representatives (1835-36), and was active with the Masonic Lodge.

This from the Alabama Beacon October 12, 1843:
We have seen a statement of a Cotton-picking, on the farm of Col. John J. WINSTON, of this county, which beats anything in that line we have ever recorded. We have not space to give more than a brief abstract of the statement. THORNTON picked 428 lbs. in one day – JIM 413 lbs. – MAC and BEN, each, 387 lbs. – HENRY 378 lbs. – DAN 330 lbs. – and many others gathered quantities varying from 250 to 300 lbs. This is a picking which any of our planters may be safely challenged to beat. The quantity gathered by 44 hands was 8,840 lbs. – the space off of which it was gathered about six acres. It was the second picking, an average yield of 300 lbs. per acre having been gathered before, and about 400 or 500 lbs. per acre remaining to open. So here will be a yield of about 1800 or 2000 lbs. per acre. This we call good cropping and good picking. Beat it who can, in the county or in the State. Eutaw Whig.

While living in Greene County he suffered the loss of his oldest son John Milton Winston, and his daughter Mary Francis Posey. Nevertheless he endured and prospered through several financial depressions by his shrewd investments and land acquisitions. He died of an apparent stroke on April 3, 1850.

His nephew, John Anthony Winston, whom some historians confuse with him, became the first native-born governor of Alabama. Most of his children migrated to Texas in 1855. Susan Winston died in Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas in 1858, and is interred in the Cedar Lake Cemetery there.