Death records include such documents as death certificates, burial records and obituaries. There may also occasionally be court documents regarding a suspicious death. Older death records might give little more than a burial date and place. Later, when the recording of deaths was required by law, records often included very specific information, such as the deceased's birth date and place, his or her residence at time of death, the name and birthplace of parents, who the informant was, specifics of the cause of death, as well as the death and burial date and place.
Charles City County, Virginia
The portion of Charles City County located south of the James River became Prince George County in 1703. Part of Prince George County's original lands, along with parts of Isle of Wight County and Surry County, would later form Brunswick County in 1720. Greensville County would be cut from Brunswick in 1780.
Katherine Lanier
Born - 1664/1665 Charles City (later Prince George) County, Virginia (to John Lanier and Lucreece)
Died - before Jun 1665 Charles City (later Prince George) County, Virginia
Cause of Death - accidental smothering and strangulation
(Katherine's mother, Lucreece, was the paternal grandmother of Sarah Lanier, wife of George1 Brewer.)
Cause of Death - accidental smothering and strangulation
(Katherine's mother, Lucreece, was the paternal grandmother of Sarah Lanier, wife of George1 Brewer.)
Suspicious Death Investigation, 1665 -
Lucreece was evidently accused of "strangling her daughter (Katherine) in her crib on a hot, May day."
Source - The Lanier Family of France, England, Virginia and Duplin Co., NC, by Mamie Chambers Sawyer, 1972
"In June of 1665 in Charles City County an inquest was held to investigate the untimely death of Katherine Lanier, daughter of John and Lucreece Lanier, who was smothered in her crib 'on a hot May day, the 7th'."
The following was printed in 1934 in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, volume 42, page 42 and quoted on Rootsweb ➚:
"An inquest without the 'ordeal of the bier' was held over the smothering on a hot May Day, of Katherine Lanier, daughter of John and Lucreece (p. 565), headrights of Howell Price, clerk of court.
"According to an affidavit May 6, 1665, the body was discovered by one Percival Barton. The jury ... brought in the following verdict, on June 6, 1665:
'Jury to inquire & examine ye cause of the unnatural death of Katherine ye daughter of John Lanier do find and return ye verdict (as we have discovered by proofe and circumstance) that the 7th of this instant May sd child being layd on a bed to sleepe (& none to take care of her) tumbled by reason of the heat till she came under a rayle fastened at the beds side, where with the face downwards she recd her accidental death, & having the body over the bed and hanging by the head stifled against ye bed and clothe.'"
Talladega County, Alabama
Isaac Brewer (1763-1852)
Born - 15 May 1763 Creek and Cherokee Nation (later Wilkes County, Georgia)
1st Marriage - ca. 1793 Oconee River area, Georgia (name unknown)
2nd Marriage - before 1800 possibly Hancock County, Georgia (Sarah)
Died - 25 May 1852 Silver Run, Talladega County, Alabama
Isaac served in the Revolutionary War while living along Haw River in Chatham County, North Carolina and later also served in the Oconee Indians Wars and War of 1812 from Georgia. After leaving Georgia he made his home in eastern Tennessee before moving to Talladega County, Alabama where he lived out the remainder of his days.
I suspect that this obituary was written and submitted by a close family friend, Henry H Sutton, who was also Isaac's lawyer and the executor of his will. Henry later married Isaac's daughter, Elizabeth.
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| Isaac's Obituary, Jacksonville Republican Image Source ➚ |
Update - The possible cause of death could have been Dropsy, Smallpox, or Acute Pleurisy. In a court case against the above mentioned Henry H Sutton, an account is given of Isaac's medical expenses, incurred before his death. The doctor tended to him regularly in March, April and May of 1852. The medications administered were listed, namely Jalap, Cream of Tartar, Nitre and Effusive Tincture of Iodine. In researching old remedies which included these items, Dropsy seems the most likely condition from which Isaac suffered, although Smallpox or Acute Pluerisy are also possible.
Stone County, Missouri
Nancy Lucinda Brewer Lightle (1848-1925)
Born - 20 Nov 1848 Hopkins County, Kentucky (to John Wesley Brewer and Mary America Hunter)
Married - 17 Oct 1865 Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas (Henry Lightle)
Died - 24 Mar 1925 near Baxter, Stone County, Missouri (old age and kidney problems)
Buried - 25 Mar 1925 McCullough Cemetery, Lampe, Stone County, Missouri
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| Nancy's Death Certificate Image Source ➚ |
A quick note about how she and Henry Lightle met -
Nancy's family had moved from Missouri to Kansas during the War Between the States. After peace was declared, they were in the process of moving back. Nancy's father had died in Missouri a couple of years before. My grandmother, Ellen Britton, said that Henry, who had just gotten his discharge from the Union Army, came upon them while on horseback. He soon married Nancy and they all headed back to Missouri together. The two of them lived most of their married life in Stone County.
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