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Charles Tarrants mailto:tarrancb@delhi.edu
374 Bell Hill Road, Delhi, NY 13753 Simpson County, KY Tarrants Originally published by the Southern KY. Gen. Soc., in The Longhunter v. 14, Winter 1991; revised November 2006. A curiously brief entry in the James Stephenson (1744-1821) family Bible has long intrigued and puzzled researchers of both Tarrant and Stephenson families. James Stephenson arrived in Logan Co. KY about 1797 from Greenville District SC and settled north of what is now Franklin in Simpson Co. The Bible entry notes the marriage of Anna Stephenson, daughter of James, to Terry Tarrant(s). No date is given for the wedding but based on Anna’s 1773 birth and on other dated entries in the Bible, the wedding can be placed in the 1790’s in South Carolina. Both an Anna Tarrant, with 2 small sons, and a Terry Tarrant, appearing alone, can be found on the 1800 SC census living in Greenville District. Many questions arise from the unusual Bible entry and census data. Some of the more obvious include: Who was the Terry Tarrant to whom she was married? Why was he not listed as the head of the household? Had he died? But a more obscure question has proven to be the most appropriate. That is, what was his relationship to the Terry Tarrant (1772-1841) who is found alone on the 1800 SC census? That Terry Tarrant arrived in Warren Co. KY about 1801 from SC. He married Mary Patrick in July 1803 and they raised a large family along Swan Creek near Greencastle. No evidence of any relationship, other than the common name, had ever been found. Recently, however, a suit filed in the Warren County Circuit Court in 1809 has surfaced that finally explains the mystery of the Terry Tarrants. In the suit, now located in the KY State Archives in Frankfort, Ann Tarrant of Logan County seeks child support and alimony from Terry Tarrant of Warren County. She says that she met Terry in South Carolina in 1795, was seduced by him, ‘… under the most solemn promises of marriage’, and bore his child. He did not marry her but was compelled by the court of Greenville County South Carolina to provide bond and security of ₤60Sterling for the support of the child. (Read the actual suit: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8 ) Ann further states that at some later time Terry again proposed marriage, she accepted and they were wed in South Carolina in April 1798. This appears to be the marriage recorded in the Stephenson Bible, perhaps purposefully left undated to shield their first child born months before. In the suit, she expresses her feeling that Terry married her only to retrieve the ₤60 bond he had left with the court and complains that she had received none of it. All clearly was not well between them and Terry did not live with Ann regularly. As she phrased it, he was ‘… frequently with and very much away’ from her. His excuse, according to Ann, was that ‘… as he had been in the mercantile line he wished to wind up his business before he would settle himself and go to house keeping’. Terry was apparently in no hurry to wind up his business because they continued to live in this manner for some years. A second child was born probably in late 1799 or early 1800 but Terry was still away from Ann much of the time. Ann complains that Terry never did ‘settle himself’ and that he left her for good ‘… with his two infants and (she) pregnant with the third in a very helpless condition without anything whatsoever to support on’. This would correspond closely to the time (about 1801) that Terry Tarrant must have left South Carolina for Kentucky in the company of his uncle, Samuel Tarrant. Ann followed them to Kentucky about 1808 and she settled in what was then Logan Co., but now is Simpson Co., near her father. There is no record that Terry said anything in his defense and the court ruled 15 June 1809 that he must make bond with $1000 security for the support of Ann and their children, and if he failed to comply he would be jailed. Surprisingly no mention is made of Terry’s apparent bigamy or to a divorce if one had been sought. His marriage to Ann, however, may have played a role in the 2 year delay, between July 1801 when a bond was issued for the marriage of Terry and Mary Patrick in Warren Co., and the actual marriage which apparently did not occur until at least July 1803 when John Patrick gave his consent for this daughter’s marriage. Terry remained with Mary Patrick Tarrant until his death in 1841. Ann lived in Simpson County until 1830 when she and two of her sons left for Missouri. According to a history of the James Stephenson Family written in the 1930’s by Frank Stephenson and Jewell Mayes of Appleton City, MO and supplied to me by Marilyn Owen, PO Box 2613, Santa Barbara, CA 93120; Anna Stephenson Tarrant lived to a ripe old age and is buried in Bethel Cemetery near Excelsior Springs, MO. Though Ann Tarrant did not name her children in the suit, their identities can be inferred from surviving Simpson County tax lists and information passed through the Stephenson family. The eldest child was Terry Turner Tarrant(s) (1797-1861) who lived most of his life near Franklin, Simpson Co., KY. He married Mary (Polly) Brown in 1818 in Logan Co., KY. He had several children including: Samuel F. Tarrants, Erasmus Tarrants, Mary C. Tarrants, and L. G. (female). He and many members of his family are buried in the Tarrants Cemetery north of Franklin, KY. The child following the April 1798 marriage of Anna and Terry was Lott Tarrant(s) born late in 1799 or early in 1800. He is regularly found on Simpson County tax lists from 1821 (his first appearance) through 1830. At his enumeration on the 1830 census he has a wife, three sons and three daughters. His wife was Rachel Owings daughter of Joshua and Regannah (Speers) Owings. They were married about 1820, soon after the death of Rachel’s mother, probably in Simpson County. Lott was also the guardian of Rachel’s minor sister Elizabeth Owings (no doubt one of the three ‘daughters’) for several years in the 1820’s. Lott died in Lincoln Co. MO 4 February 1845 and named widow (Rachel) and children (no names) in will. Lott’s family was enumerated on the 1850 Lincoln Co. census: Rachel Torrence 47 widow; Charles H. 18; Benjamin 16; John 11; Enoch 8; Andrew J. 5. The only daughter I find record of is Ragenia Ann Torrance who married Franklin Lovil in Lincoln Co. MO in 1842. Terry and Anna’s youngest child was Erasmus Tarrant(s). He was born in 1801 or 1802 according to tax list information. Erasmus who was single, Lott and his family, and their mother, Anna, last appear on Simpson County records in 1830. According to the Stephenson family history, Anna and Erasmus moved to Clay County, Missouri. Erasmus married Mary Huffaker there in 1833. Erasmus’ estate was probated in Clay Co. MO in 1869 and his children are listed. They are: Elvira Tarrants, Baron Tarrants, Drusilla Stephenson, Helen H. Tarrants, and Lucy Poe. His wife Mary and a son Henry K. had apparently died between the 1850 and 1860 census. I would like to thank Marilyn Owen for supplying me with Stephenson family data and helpful correspondence that made this article possible. Charles Tarrants ( mailto:tarrancb@delhi.edu 374 Bell Hill Road, Delhi, NY 13753)
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