In August 1788, my fifth great grandfather John Dobbs a veteran of the Revolutionary war from North Carolina was awarded a land-grant in the state of Georgia consisting of 67 acres situated in what was then Wilkes County. In 1790, Elbert County was formed from a part of Wilkes County. From that time on, John Dobbs and his adult sons resided in Christian Township Elbert County. One of his sons, my fourth great-grandfather, was Josiah Dobbs. He was born around 1765 in Rowan County North Carolina and he died in 1810 in Elbert County. His son, my third great-grandfather, David Dobbs was born in Elbert County in 1791. In 1819, David Dobbs married Elizabeth McMullan, daughter of Patrick McMullan and Sarah Walker. The McMullan’s came to Georgia from Orange county, Virginia around the same time that the Dobbs arrived. Unfortunately, the portion of the 1790 U.S. Census that covers the state of Georgia was destroyed during the war of 1812, so we do not have access to records that would have shown the where the exactly the Dobbs and McMullan’s resided at that time, but other records give the location as either Cedar Creek or Christian township.

Searching All Georgia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1742-1992 for John Dobbs and also his son, Josiah Dobbs and I found nothing. In fact, I could not find wills for my 3rd great-grandfather David Dobbs , nor his son David Judson Dobbs, both of Cobb county, Georgia.

Yet while I was searching the newspaper archives, I came upon a court order from the inferior court of Elbert County, Georgia, that was published in the Washington News and Planters Gazette November 18, 1841 (Page 3).

It was a notice that a person by the name of Barnabas Barron was suing my third great-grandfather David Dobbs, his brother Asa and a handful of relatives of David’s wife my third great-grandmother Elizabeth (McMullan) Dobbs. Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of Patrick McMullan and Sarah Walker. Sarah died in 1818 and Patrick, who remarried, died in 1836. It appears to demand that the defendants appear in Elbert county court to “plead, demur, and answer to said Bill”.

 There were a number of questions here that I want to find answers to: Who was Barnabas Barron? What is meant by “…and Milly, Uxor”? Who is Elizabeth Prather? Did anyone respond to this court order?

Locating the will and probate records for John McMullan and his son, Patrick, I was able to answer the first two questions fairly quickly. Barnabas Barron is listed as a justice of the peace on one of the will documents. But he also appears to be a son-in-law and so here it looks like we have the same situation as I wrote of in recent post titled Dobbs v. Prothro – where the husband is suing on behalf of his wife. For you see, “…and Milly, Uxor” is 19^th century code meaning “and his wife, Milly”

Hopefully I will be able to answer these and other questions when next up, I will be examining the probate records of my 5th great-grandfather, John McMullan (1740-1818), my 4^th great-grandfather, Patrick McMullan (c. 1772-1836), my 5th great-grandfather, Old Evan Prothro (abt 1742-1822) , his son Nathanial Prothro (abt 1765-1823) and daughter-in-law, Zilphia (Morgan) Prothro (1770-1831).