John D. Lee is convicted for his Participation in the Meadow Mountains Massacre of 1857

From the Doniphan Prospect, October 13, 1876 (page 1). Mention of the conviction of John D. Lee for his participation in the Mountain Meadow Massacre in southern Utah in 1857. Lee was convicted on September 20, 1876, but the story was not picked up until October 13, 1876 in Doniphan. Doniphan was the neighboring town to where my ancestors, Robert King and Tabitha House resided in 1876. I found this article while I was looking for the death notice of Robert King who supposedly died in 1876.

Here is the transcript of the article:

Justice at Last.

SALT LAKE, Oct. 10. – At Bea-
ver, Utah, to-day, Judge Bore-
man passed sentence upon John
D. Lee for participation in the
Mountain Meadow massacre, 19
years ago. In doing so he call-
ed attention to the attrocities of
the crime and tae [sic] inability,
heretofore, of the authorities to
procure evidence, stating that
the conspiracy to murder was
widespread, that Lee was finally
offered up as a sacrafice to pop-
ular indigna ion, but that others,
equally as guilty, might here-
after expect punishment. The
prisoner, having the right under
the laws of the Territory, to
choose death by hanging, shoot-
ing or beheading, and having
chosen to be shot, was sentenced
to be shot to death January 26,
1877.

Wow, he had a choice to be shot, hanged or beheaded? And they think capital punishment is harsh today! Needless to say he chose to be shot. He was shot by a firing squad on March 23, 1877.

I included this article because my Dunlap family was one of the families that was killed during the Meadow Mountain Massacre. The Utahians believed the wagon convoy of familes from Arkansas had poisoned their people, farm animals, crops, and water supply so they retaliated by killing everyone in the convoy. Only a few children survived. You can read more about the massacre and find references on its Wikipedia page here. Lee was the only man convicted and as you can see, it took 19 years to do so. 

Here is a photo of John D. Lee from the Wikipedia page (original source is the Utah Historical Society) as it is in the public domain.

You can read John D Lee's memoir that he wrote in prison here.

More information about the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857

Sampson County NC Deed of Jonathan Godwin to Abigail Lee

Last week I posted about the estate records of Jonathan Godwin, 1791, from Sampson County, North Carolina. According to the inventory taken from his estate, he had 50 acres of land in his possession when he died. I'm going to talk about this mysterious tract of land in a later post.  

For today's post, I want to highlight a tract of land containing 150 acres of land that Jonathan Godwin purchased in 1771 from John Strickland and sold in 1787 to Abigail Lee. I have included a copy of the deed below and a transcript of the deed itself. 

Scan of Sampson County deed from Jonathan Godwin to Abigail Lee, 7 July 1787, from the Sampson County Record of Deeds, 1774-1792, Volumes 5-8 (Microfilm call no. 087.40002) from the North Carolina State Archives, 109 E. Jones Street, Raleigh, NC. 

The following is the transcript of the deed:

North Carolina

Sampson County

To all people to whom these presents shall come know ye that I JONATHAN GODWIN at the county and province aforesaid Know ye that I the said JONATHAN GODWIN for and in consideration of the sum of Sixty pounds specia money to me in hand paid by ABAGAIL LEE of Sampson County and province aforesaid Planter the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged myself hisword truly satisfied contented and paid and have given granted bargained sold conveyed and enforced confirmed assigned and set over unto the said ABAGAIL LEE her heirs and assigns forever.  A certain tract or parcel of land containing one hundred and fifty acres of land lying and being in the county of Sampson and province of North Carolina on the East side of Black Mingo Beginning at a Red Oak thence South 05? East 115 poles to a Black Oak thence North 40 East 155 poles to a pine thence North 50 West 155 poles to a pine on the Swamp side thence the courses of the swamp to the beginning including MATTHEW STICKLAND's improvements it being a tract of land that was granted to TIMOTHY LEE bearing date the 23 day of April in the year of our Lord and was conveyed by deed from TIMOTHY LEE to JOHN STRICKLAND and from JOHN STRICKLAND to ABAGAIL LEE to JONATHAN GODWIN and from GODWIN to ABAGAIL LEE to have and to hold the said tract or parcel of land together all orchards gardens Jenning’s timbers and trees thereon standing or growing all woods waters much all proffits and other things unto the same belonging or in any manner of ways appertaining unto the said ABAGAIL LEE her heirs and assigns forever for and clear form all in cumbrances whatsoever and the said JONATHAN GODWIN for himself his heirs executors administrators doth covenant promise grant and agree to and with the said ABAGAIL LEE her heirs and assigns in manner following that is to say the said JONATHAN GODWIN at the sealing & delivering of these presents that a good sufficient Right and title and estate of inheritance in the premises and that in full power and lawfull and authority do bargain and sell the same in manner as aforesaid unto the said ABAGAIL LEE her heirs and assigns forever and the said JONATHAN GODWIN for himself his hears Executors and administrators doth further promise and warrant that the said land and promises is free from the lawful claim and demands of any pursuant persons whatsoever and the same will warrant secure and forever defend the aforesaid lands and premises unto the aforesaid ABAGAIL LEE her heirs & assigns forever the Quit Rents due to the State Executed.

I on witnesses whereof I the said JONATHAN GODWIN have hereunto set my hand and seal this the Seventh day of July one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven 1787.

Signed sealed and

delivered in the presence of

NATHAN GODWIN

WILLIAM GODWIN

John Fields

             JONATHAN GODWIN {Seal}

Then the deed was proved in open court and recorded by the County Clerk:

State of North Carolina

Sampson County August Term One thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty seven 1787 then was the within deed from JONATHAN GODWIN to ABAGAIL LEE was proved in open court and ordered to be registered.

State of North Carolina

Curtis Ivey Clk Court

Sampson County represented in the Registers Office of the aforesd county in Book letter M Pages 16 and 17 the 16th day of April Anno domini 1789.  April 10, 1789.  By Owen Holmes Register

This deed provided me with a lot of valuable information. However, first I want to point out what I believe to have been a recording error. The deed mentions that the land was conveyed from Timothy Lee to John Strickland to Abigail Lee then to Jonathan Godwin. There is NO record of this land ever going to Abigail Lee prior to Jonathan selling it to her in this deed in 1787. In fact I can tract the ownership of this land easily through Land Grants and Deed Records. Update: upon further scrutiny, I can see that Abagail Lee was actually crossed out in this copy of the deed. 


The deed says this tract of land was originally a land patent granted to Timothy Lee, 23 April.  I used the NC State Archives online catalog system - MARS - too look up the original land patent going to Timothy Lee.  I found a land grant given from "The Crown" to Timothy Lee, 23 April 1763 for 150 acres on the East side of the Black Mingo, joining the swamp, including Matthew Stricklin's improvement, in what was at that time considered Duplin County, North Carolina. 


On the 17th of February, 1770, Timothy Lee sold this tract of land to John Strickland for 10 pounds. James Godwin and Duct Dees witnessed the deed. 


This tract of land came into Jonathan Godwin's hands in October of 1771, when John Strickland sold the same 150 acres on the East side of Black Mingo to Jonathan Godwin, of Edgecombe County. William Godwin and James Godwin witnessed the deed. That Jonathan Godwin was from Edgecombe County in 1771 was an important piece of the puzzle. This places him in an entirely different familial group and possibly distinguishes him from the Sampson County Godwins. I'm not sure what he did with this 150 acres of land in Duplin/Sampson County. He might have given it to a family member for them to build and live on, or he might have just sat on it. Unfortunately, I have found record of a Jonathan Godwin in both Edgecombe and Sampson Counties from the time he bought this land in 1771 to the time he sold it in 1787. I need to compile my findings into a spreadsheet and see where the overlap is in order to distinguish between the two men, if they are, in fact, two different men. 


This leads us to the land transfer described in the deed above in 1787 when Jonathan Godwin of Sampson County sold this 150 acres on the East side of Black Mingo to Abigail Lee on 7 July 1787. This deed was witnessed by Nathan Godwin and William Godwin. This tract of land was sold right before Jonathan died (his estate was settled in 1791). 


The two 50 acre tracts of land that Jonathan Godwin was granted in Sampson County in 1788 and what happened to them when he died are discussed in the following posts:

The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 1
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 2
The Distribution of Jonathan Godwin's Estate, Part 3

DNA Results - are we really SMITHS?

I uploaded my grandfather's DNA results to the Ancestry.com database last weekend. I had to create a new log in account in ancestry.com. This log in is a free account and does not have access to my family tree or to the paid subscription databases. I tried to invite this new log in to edit my tree under the original log in, however, I cannot get my new log in to recognize my tree that is saved under the original log in. Looks like I need to email the Ancestry.com folks again.

I got a few hundred matches again, like I did for my Godwin DNA test, with multiple surnames. There were even a few Smith matches in there too! My top match was to 3 Lee family men. They were 100% matches with a MRCA of 2. Translation: There is a 50% probability that we share a common ancestor in the last 2 generations! That probably goes up to 95% within only 13 generations. One of these LEE family DNA participants emailed me. So I emailed him back explaining my predicament....

On Mar 24, 2009 I wrote the following:
Actually I DO have a "Lee" family connection! See below under the 6th generation.

(1) Darrel Smith
(2) Claude Smith
(3) Claude Smith SR
(4) Preston Smith
(5) Richard Smith md. Martha Dunlap
(6) David Smith md. Sarah Gallymore

Here is where the confusion comes in. We have a Cherokee application affadavit that says "David Smith married a young Cherokee woman named Sarah Gallymore who was the daughter of Jinnie Gallymore, nee Lee, and her husband - the said James Smith." (I believe they were claiming Cherokee Indian from James Smith - not necessarily Sarah Gallymore).

This paragraph confused me because at first we assumed James Smith was the father of David Smith and that Jinnie Lee Gallymore was the mother of Sarah Gallymore. However, the statement that James Smith was Jinnie Lee Gallymore's husband contradicted that assumption.

Either way, it seems that there was much more of a paternal Lee influence on our family than we had originally thought. I asked my Lee DNA match participant to check if he had any documented Smiths in his tree. I'm kind of afraid of his answer. It seems to me that the error is possibly on our side and that we might not have been SMITHS afterall!

I can only imagine the impact this news might have on my family. We are not a big family, nor were we really very close knit. In fact, I only correspond with only 2 or 3 other "cousins" who are doing genealogy research. And why does it have to be a Lee family? That's just as common as Smith. Why couldn't the mistake have been made with a less common surname? And how did this happen anyways? Lee was supposed to have been Jennie Gallymore's maiden name. Did she marry another Lee cousin? Or was she married to a Lee before marrying a Gallymore? If this is true, was she married 3 times? First to Lee, then Gallymore, then to a Smith? So many questions. I can't even begin to imagine all the possibilities!

If anyone has any suggestions, please comment below.