| Benjamin Kelley |
| Benjamin Kelley was
believed to have been born about 1757 or 1758 and like his
brothers, and because his father, William Kelley, appears in the
1752 Lunenburg Co Tithes list, it is likely Benjamin was born
in the portion of Lunenburg that became Mecklenburg Co in 1765..
Alethea Jane Macon makes the
claim in her book,
Four O'Kelley
Sons and Some of their Descendants, Allied Families
that Benjamin served in the 8th Virginia 10th
Company with his older brother Charles and this was certainly
possible as a Benjamin Kelly appears on the
roll with Charles Kelly. What is less likely was
Benjamin Kelly was born in 1761 in King and Queen Co VA as that
Benjamin whose
pension application is on file with our National Archives
and who married Mary Williams Nov 24 1784 in Warren Co NC, I am
certain was a different Benjamin. To keep these men
straight I will reference them as Benjamin born 1757/58 who I
believe was the brother of Charles and Benjamin
born 1761 in King and Queen Co who was not the
brother of Charles. Benjamin born 1761 would have been five years younger than Charles, he would have been merely 15 years old when the names Charles and Benjamin Kelly appeared on the rolls of the 8th Virginia 10 Company, Charles being 21 years old. Benjamin born 1757/58 would have been 18 or 19 years of age, closer to the age of Charles making it more likely that they would have served together, likely both drafted in the same Mecklenburg VA draft. Like Thomas O'Kelley, Benjamin Kelly born 1761 marries a woman in NC and he is drafted twice in NC. He has a multi page pension application on file and while he mentions both his drafts into the NC Militia he makes no mention of service with the 8th Virginia which would be mentioned if he had been the Benjamin Kelly who served with Charles and his time in NC is in a time when Charles and Francis were living, marrying, and raising a family in Mecklenburg VA. Many researchers just explain this away as Mecklenburg VA, Granville and Warren Co NC share borders but while I suspect Benjamin born 1757/58 and Benjamin born 1761 are related, likely cousins, I do not think they are the same person or part of the same immediate family. Consider Alethea Jane Macon in her book makes the claim that the second son of Benjamin was born along the Roanoke River in Virginia but according to the 1850 US Census for TN, Francis O'Kelly gives his state of birth as NC not Virginia. I don't think Macon researched this and I suspect some descendant of Benjamin born in 1761 merely passed this information on to her and she passed it on to her readers where it became proven family fact. Benjamin born in 1761 does state he lived in Mecklenburg at one time but so did Rev James O'Kelly the founder of the Christian Church so not all Kelleys living in Mecklenburg were of the same immediate family. So if these are two different Benjamins, one who lived, married, and whose children were born in Warren Co NC and another who was of our family what happened to our Benjamin? I think it is likely he moved to Ga when Charles and Francis moved but wasn't as lucky as they, he never received any land so if he had descendants they passed on into obscurity. he may have descendants living today and they are just unaware they are related to our family because Macon and others given the Benjamin who married Mary Williams as our Benjamin. The DAR recognizes Charles, Francis, and Thomas but this is solely due to descendants efforts making it likely that if Benjamin born in 1757/58 had descendants they are either unaware they descended from this man or his line died out years ago. Benjamin born 1761 is not the only one of the brothers that I suspect is of another family, I have many doubts that Thomas who we find also living, marrying, and likely having children born in Granville NC who I suspect is not of our immediate family and it doesn't miss my notice that the first born son of Thomas is given as Frances and that is Benjamin born 1761 second born son's name, Benjamin's first born son being named after Soloman Williams a bother of Mary Williams. For me this is a clear indicator that the father of these two men was likely Francis Kelley a name that appears in the 1790 NC Census. |
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There is some very thin DNA evidence to support my proposal. A Ronnie O'Kelley can trace his ancestry back to John Wesley O'Kelley born 1826 who is believed to be a previously unknown son of Rev James O'Kelley the son of Thomas O'Kelley and Ronnie's DNA results compared to mine and my uncle John indicate that if Ronnie is a descendant of Thomas that Thomas and Charles were cousins at least four to five generations removed. Because Ronnie can not yet prove his relation to Thomas this DNA test can not be accepted as proof but when considered with all the rest that can be proven it does cause me to suspect that Thomas, Benjamin born in 1761 and Charles may not have been brothers. |