Some Notes on
Joseph Rogers/Rodgers, father of Nancy Rogers, wife of William Hardy Bedingfield and mother of Solomon Elihugh Lorenzo Greham Bedingfield

The birthplaces of both Joseph Rogers/Rodgers and daughter Nancy are disputed, but the family apparently lived in Granville County, North Carolina, at least between 1800 and 1810 -- Joseph and Nancy are censused there; a few years later when Nancy married, she, her new family, and father were all living in what was then Gwinnett County, Georgia.

According to The People of Gwinnett County, Joseph Rogers/Rodgers's birthplace was Gwinnett County, Georgia (where Bethlehem is, just northeast of Atlanta). I only figured it as Georgia, perhaps between Atlanta and Macon. (I do need to do re-reading!) The People of Gwinnett County says that, Joseph Rogers/Rodgers was Irish and born in Georgia. Gwinnett County itself was carved in 1818 out of the Cherokee Nation in the North and the Creek Nation in the South, after Georgia's Western boundary was established in 1802. It and neighboring Walton County were first censused in 1820.

I found a "Joseph Rogers" on the Oglethorpe County, Georgia tax list for 1798 (Oglethorpe County is right next door to Jackson County at this point -- where two Rogers lines, those of Enoch and of John IV, had land -- see notes at bottom; Clarke, Gwinnett, and Walton did not exist as counties at this date), and one on the Franklin County Georgia tax list for 1798 http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/document.php?CISOROOT=/tax&CISOPTR=1884&REC=1 (page 21; 4th row; (Gwinnett and Barrow Counties, where some of the land that Joseph Rodgers deeded to daughter Nancy and her husband Hardy Bedingfield was located, was formed from Franklin County), and again in Franklin County in 1800 (Captain John Honeypher's district?), and 1802. Franklin like Oglethorpe is to the East of Gwinnett County, but in 1798 extended farther West than Gwinnett does today (the western borders of counties along the western edge of the 'civilized' colony or state were not clearly defined and sometimes were interpreted as extending as far west as the Pacific and the Spanish territories along the Pacific, that is, as extending to present-day California); Barrow County, which was formed from Gwinnett and Walton Counties, used to be part of Franklin County; the latter was formed by 1783 from Cherokee lands; Oglethorpe was formed from nearby Wilkes County by 1793; then Jackson was carved in 1796 from part of Franklin, but it's likely that some of the western land did continue to be taxed as part of Franklin County prior to becoming part of Gwinnett and Walton counties in 1818, as Gwinnett was supposedly carved not from Jackson County but from Franklin County. (See counties newly formed out of Cherokee and Creek lands, at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gatttp/maps/formationmap.htm; see also the map showing Georgia land cessions at the U.S. Genweb Archives, http://usgwarchives.net/maps/cessions/ilcmap15.htm.)

Other Rogers are listed on the 1799 tax list for Jackson County, including Enoch Rogers, Benjamin Rogers, James Rogers, John Rogers, Peles (?) Rogers, Dempsey (?) Rogers and also perhaps a ? Rogers (on page 35 of the online microfilmed tax list at http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/).

Please note that someone can of course be listed on the tax roster for one county but be living in another! The tax roster lists all landowners, whether or not they are residents.

Thaxton Genealogy cite an 1803 deed from Nathan Williams of Wilkes County to James Thaxton in neighboring Oglethorpe County; the land is described as being "on Long Creek waters", adjacent to "Joseph Rodgers' line" (see https://thaxtongenealogy.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/oglethorpe-county-georgia-deed-book-references-to-thaxtons-1794-1820/). Here is the description:

D:346, 17 Nov 1803: Nathan Williams of Wilkes Co., Ga., to James Thaxton of Oglethorpe Co., Ga., for $208, 130 acres on Long Creek waters, adj. Joseph Rodgers’ line, W. to Robert Haynes’ line, line run between Charles Ellis & Haynes, E. to Rodgers’ line to beginning. Wits: Lucy Lumpkin, Jno. Lumpkin, J.I.C.

A Joseph Rodgers was surveyed in Effingham County in 1791, according to the record in the Headright and Lottery Loose Plat File of Georgia Surveyor General, RG 3-3-26, Vol. S, p. 318 (Georgia Archives, Digital Collection; see http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/compoundobject/collection/looseplats/id/23112/rec/20). Effingham County by that point had delineated Western boundaries, and was fairly far South-- and East -- of the location of the land Joseph Rogers deeded to daughter Nancy and husband Hardy, and fairly far South and East of Oglethorpe and Jackson Counties where several Rogers/Rodgers, including Joseph, had land; Effingham County was deep in Muscogee/Creek territory. Nevertheless here is the boundary plat:

Title Rogers, Joseph
County Effingham
Number of Acres 100
Date 1791-10-22
Date Type Surveyed
Watercourse Canoochee River
Volume S
Page 318
Record ID effi1196

John Rogers, but no Joseph, appears on the reconstructed Franklin County 1790 census (see http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/franklin/census/1790/1790rc01.txt).

(NOTE: The creation of Franklin and Washington counties in 1784 with no Western boundaries although it was actually a small piece of land ceded -- done in part through our own ancestor S. Elbert's mediation -- spelled troubles with the Cherokee and Creek.)

Daughter Nancy is believed by some to have been born back in North Carolina (Granville County, north of Winston-Salem), but again I've also read that while the family returned to North Carolina and lived there a while, Nancy too was born in Georgia. Granville County is not censused until 1800 at which point a Joseph Rogers Sr. appears on the census with two daughters age 10-16.

Both a Joseph Rogers Sr. and a Joseph Rogers Jr. are listed on the 1800 and 1810 Granville County, NC censuses where Nancy was born and lived for a while. Joseph Rodgers Jr. was supposedly born in Granville County, NC, in 1776, and married Dicy Kittrell in October of 1797; however some people have him listed as having been born in Gwinnett County. He may not have been, however, the father of Nancy; 1800 Granville County, NC census data suggests that Joseph Jr.'s daughter -- listed as under 10 on the 1800 census -- is probably too young to be the Nancy who married Hardy Bedingfield before 1817. Nancy Rodgers (Beddingfield) is believed to have been born around 1885; it's more likely then that she is one of the two daughters in the 10-16 age range belonging to Joseph Sr.

Whether or not Joseph Rodgers/Rogers Sr. is the father of Joseph Jr. or just an older Joseph Rogers who needs to be distinguished from the younger Joseph Rogers is unclear. If he were the father of Joseph Jr., he was then probably born by 1760 and not in 1770 as some records indicate!

Another (apparently) young Joseph Rogers, possibly the son of a Joseph in the area according to records, was born in Cherokee Nation East in 1787. This is within a few years of Nancy's own birth date; at this date, what are now Gwinnett and Walton Counties, what were then Frankin County, were part of Cherokee Nation East. This Joseph Rogers was baptized a Christian after his death. His birth date seems to early for him to be one of the sons of mixed-blood Nolichucky John Rodgers/Rogers (described below; Nolichucky John was one of the sons of Enoch Rodgers/Rogers), and too late for him to have been Nancy's father Joseph Rodgers/Rogers.

Our Joseph Rogers, along with Joseph Rogers' son-in-law Hardy Bedingfield were supposedly among the around thirty active members of the Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church (I need to recheck this; when the Bay Creek Baptist Church -- which predated the Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church -- was formed in 1823, there was already a missionary Baptist Church in Gwinnett County: Mount Moriah; the new Baptist Church formed in Loganville in Walton County and soon split into two branches; the Primitive branch of that Baptist Church is what remained near Loganville, buying the land from the remnants of the original Bay Creek branch -- the Bay Creek branch itself moved on). Alas, I see no record of Bedingfield or Joseph Rodgers on the Church list at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/walton/churches/gbb62shilohpr.txt , but it seems in any case that the two men, Joseph Rodgers/Rogers and Hardy Bedingfield, together with Nolichucky John Rodgers/Rogers, were Baptists (my source on Rodger's and Bedingfield's activity with the Shiloh Primitive Baptists is from either The People of Walton County or The People of Gwinnett County) in spite of Hardy's son's Solomon's later affiliation with the Methodist Church [the latter is perhaps the outcome of Solomon's marriage to Housch]. For more on the Primitive Baptists, see: http://www.pb.org/pbdocs/condhist.html ). The old Shiloh Primitive church was apparently located in Walton County just to the West of Loganville, not far from the present-day Fulton County line.

While Hardy's son Solomon fought and was taken prisoner during the Civil War, no Bedingfields and neither any John or Joseph Rodgers/Rogers participated in the 1836 Creek War (it's worth noting that a number of people, including missionaries, opposed this war; however Joseph born around 1760-1770 may have well been too old or dead; as for Hardy, he was a bit younger but still perhaps too old too fight; only his first son born around 1817 was just coming of age).

According to Mormon genealogy, a Joseph Rogers was born in 1770 in Gwinnett County, GA, but I cannot confirm this through census or other records which do not exist.

The Most Promising Lines I Have Found To Date

1. Enoch Rogers -- son of Jacob Rogers (born North Carolina 1714-1740) and Ruth (unknown, no birth info)-- born about 1760
   Enoch was born in Northampton County, North Carolina (near Roanoke Rapids, a very polluted town today)--see http://maps.msn.com/(wlfyt0vacnrtzeeirle2xsqs)/map.aspx?L=USA&C=36.41782%2c-77.39702&A=215.00000&P=|99252F|&TI=Northampton+(county)%2c+North+Carolina%2c+United+States.
   
   The information on this Rogers line is apparently from the Will of Jacob Rogers; but I have not seen the Will, just the ancestry tree file. (The Will is from Sue Hughes, auntsh@miminpapa.com.)
   
   Like Hardy Bedingfield, Enoch moved from North Carolina to Georgia. Enoch was active in the Holly Springs Baptist Church (now in Barrow County?).
   
   Enoch's first wife was a woman who was at least half-blood Cherokee, Catherine Teague. Enoch also had land in Jackson County, Georgia.
   
   Several children of Enoch's include Enoch, John, William, David, Robert, and Nancy (born 1787), but no "Joseph" is listed. Nancy is listed as Enoch's daughter by Catherine Teague so was thus at least quarter blood Cherokee. Her birth date is about the same as that ouf our Nancy -- but she is apparently not our Nancy who was definitely the daughter of Joseph.
   
   The names of Enoch Rogers's children somewhat match Rogers names appearing on the 1830 Gwinnett County census. (Hardy Bedingfield was censused that year in Walton County next door.)
   
   Enoch's Son John Rogers (also known as John Nollichucky Rodgers) married into the Cherokees as well (to Sarah Corderie who was a half blood -- her mother was the Cherokee Sonocooie also known as Susannah).
   
   Nolichucky John's daughter (also Nancy) supposedly married William Polk (not William Hardy Bedingfield). Joseph, identified in The People of Gwinnett/Walton County as Nancy's father, who gave Nancy and Hardy land in around 1820!
   
   Nolichucky John also had a son Joseph born in 1806 in Georgia -- a bit late for our Joseph. Nolichucky John's other sons include Johnson (John), Robert, William, and Lovely, who are listed as "Cherokee planters" in Don L. Shadbury's Cherokee Planters in Georgia.
   
   How would our Joseph have been related to Enoch? Enoch had several brothers but I am not sure of names, so the following is pure speculation: (1), Enoch may have had a younger brother Joseph who also came to Georgia -- but our Joseph was supposedly born in Georgia according to Mormon genealogy!; (2) Enoch perhaps came to Georgia with an older brother, who had a son Joseph, who was born in Georgia.
   
   
   
   
2. Another Possible Line: Northampton County, North Carolina's Rogers, John Rogers IV:
   
   John Rogers IV was born about 1750 in Northhampton County, N.C. to another John Rogers who had been born in 1714 to a Joseph Rodgers.
   He married a Nancy, last-name-unknown. The family then moved to Elbert County, Georgia, not Gwinnett, leaving behind a brother named Josiah Hill Rogers, whose Will indicates that he remained in North Carolina -- thus he does not seem to be our Joseph.
   
   Descendants of John Rogers IV include: Morea (or "Moira" I guess, Irish for "Mary") Rogers (she was supposedly born in 1776 in Jackson County, Georgia); Thomas; Nancy; Benjamin; James; Peleg; and John. Perhaps there was also a "Joseph" born in 1770 or just before!
   
   The people who posted the information on John Rogers IV are Snowflake and Taylor at She@ancestry.com or Fhe@ancestry.com . (I find it hard to decipher the email address.) Another source of information is Gaye Yando at myando38@hotmail.com, who posts information from a Will.
   
   Again, note Enoch, above, also had land in Jackson County! And both Enoch and John are from Northampton County, NC, suggesting that this John may be Enoch's relative (cousin or brother? John's name says John IV; Enoch's father was Jacob, not John; Enoch may have been most likely a cousin; I've not been able to get any information about this John's brothers or father's brothers).
   
   Since John Rogers IV seems to be Irish at least in part (based on the name of one daughter) he may be related to our part-Irish Nancy (she's described as Irish in The People of Walton/Gwinnett County).

Anna Hansen (not our own dear aunt Anna but another Anna Hansen -- small world), a descendant of Hardy Bedingfield and Nancy Rogers by son William Hardy Bedingfield II, says Nancy Rodgers/Rogers was also known as Nancy Falkner or Faulkner Rogers by marriage or birth.

The name "Nancy Falkner" is a name of several Cherokees (including a mother-daughter team) in Cherokee Nation East in 1830.

Several Faulkners are associated with Granville County, North Carolina, but I have found no Nancy so far. A Nancy Falkner, county unknown, was born in North Carolina in the early 1800's, a bit late for our Nancy!

Joseph Rodgers is supposedly buried at Bold Springs Plantation which today would be located in Walton County near the Barrow and Gwinnett County lines. There is today, last checked, a Bold Springs Road in Walton County, but I cannot find a Bold Springs plantation. Two persons of the name Rogers (James T. Rogers and Susan Rebecca Rogers, but not our Joseph) are buried in a Bold Springs Cemetary in Grady County, Georgia (see http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/grady/cemeteries/boldspri.txt).