52 Ancestors 2020 – 16 – Air – Hannah (Albertson) Nixon

I must admit that this theme of Air had me baffled. So I chose an aunt “out of thin air.”

My 6^th great-grandaunt was Hannah (Albertson) Nixon. I had very minimal information about her on my website, her name, date and place of birth and her parents' names. She was born the 15^th day of the 2^nd month in 1719, which was before the calendar change so would be the 15^th of April. She was born in far northeastern North Carolina in the area that became Perquimans County, to Quaker parents, Nathaniel and Abigail (Nicholson) Albertson.

Since I had not entered a death date for her, I decided to check her father's will from December 1751 to see if she was living at that time. Her father did name her in the will as Hannah Albertson, so she was apparently unmarried at that time, even though she would have been 32 years old.

I enjoyed working on transcribing her father's will. It appears that 6 of the 8 children born to Nathaniel and Abigail were still living when he made his will, 3 sons and 3 daughters. Hannah was named more than once. She was to have the use of the “non Dwelling House” as long as she remained unmarried. Then she was to share with her brother Joshua a Negrow Girl named Rose and “her Increase” to be equally Divided between them. However if Hannah had no children her half was to go to her brother. Hannah had one more Item in the will: one third part of all his sheep, one Feather bed & furniture and one Chest. Nathaniel stated in his will that he was very sick and he was right because it was at the January Court in 1752 when his will was probated.

It was on March 10^th of the next year, 1753, that Hannah and John Nixon were married. John was about 10 years older than Hannah and he had been married 4 times previously. Each one of those women had died within a few years after their last child was born. Thus Hannah became stepmother for at least 5 children, from age 20 down to 2: Elizabeth, Miriam, Zachariah, John Junior and Ezra. Then Hannah had 5 children of her own with John: Mary, Lydia, Abigail, Frederick and Dorothy. But in this case, it was John who died a few years after the last child was born as he died 18 Jan 1762.

Again I found myself transcribing a will from the 1700s, this time for John Nixon, Hannah's husband. John did name Hannah in his will. He gave his son Ezra one half of the Plantation where he lived and then stated “my will & Intent is that my welbeloved wife Hannah Nixon shall have the use & benefit of sd part During her natural life or pleasure to reside thereon in this life.” John noted that this half of his property was adjoining his brother Phineas Nixon. After he makes more specific bequests to some of his children he concluded that his well beloved wife Hannah Nixon was to have all the rest of his personal estate and was to be one of the executors of his will.

Because Hannah had been willed one half a Negrow girl by her father, this caused her a problem at her Quaker church in the mid-1770s. North Carolina law prohibited freeing slaves, but the North Carolina Quaker Yearly Meeting had declared in 1775 that friends were prohibited from buying and selling Negroes. Apparently Joshua and Hannah did sell their “Negrow.” Both Joshua and Hannah are mentioned in the Quaker meeting minutes in 1777 regarding this transgression. Joshua was disowned, but the women's minutes from Pasquotank show the following about Hannah. “it appeared to them that it was hardly in her power to get her half of the negro back again & that she appeared to be very sorry for what she had done.” Therefore Hannah did remain within her Quaker congregation. The 1790 census for Perquimans County, North Carolina, does include an entry for Hannah Nixon. The household contained 3 females and 2 slaves.

Hannah's death was reported in the Quaker records, 16 Feb 1793. This means that she lived as a widow for 31 years and died at age 73, 2 months short of her 74^th birthday. It also means I had another will to transcribe. It was dated 29^th of 1^st month 1793 (29 Jan 1793). She named 3 heirs: daughters Abigail Nixon and Dorothy Nixon and grand-daughter Sarah Robinson. From the Quaker records her son Frederick had been disowned for some activity during the Revolutionary War. Her daughter Lydia had died in 1767 and her daughter Mary, who had married Rowland Robinson, died in May 1774, about a month after Sarah was born. So the 3 named, seem to be all of her female heirs at that time.

For someone I picked out of thin air, there were a number of very interesting items I discovered while researching “Aunt Hannah,” so I'm glad I picked her.