66. Richard Cross
(7)(4)
was born about 1750 in Amelia County, Virginia. He died in Oct 1802 in
Nashville, Tennessee. Richard Cross was probably already a widower by the time
he left Amelia County, Virginia, and settled in Nashville, where he was among
the first settlers in 1790. There are two distinct land grants in his name, each
for 5000 acres, but they have the same warrant number. Regardless, he became
a wealthy man by the standards of his time and place, leaving over fifty slaves
and 1920 acres of land in Davidson County, where Nashville is situated, and several
thousand more in surrounding counties.
It is through Richard Cross that the ancient family claim to descent from Pocahontas
must come if it is true. It was certainly very strong in his own day, when those
who could have known its validity for sure were still very much alive. He named
one of his children John Bolling Cross. Colonel John Bolling, of course, was
the so-called Red Bolling, the ancestor of all Pocahontas's living descendants.
Three of his grandchildren, including Powhatan Gordon, whom Richard Cross knew
as an infant, were also given Pocahontas-related names.
While there is, as yet, no proof of the descent, I am inclined to accept it.
It is certainly possible, as no known facts are inconsistent with it, and it
strikes me as unlikely that the people of the day, who knew the facts but, alas,
never wrote them down, would have deliberately created a deception. Had they
been so inclined, I suspect they would have written down a deliberately false
descent to add artistic verisimilitude to the tale. (It is one of the ironies
of genealogy that had they done so, it is altogether likely that today the falsified
claim would be entirely accepted as proof positive, because of its written form,
and two hundred years of are-we-aren't-we would never have come to pass.)
So the descent given here is, at best, tentative, based on the analysis of Octavia
Zollicoffer Bond in her Family and Kinship Book. If anyone can supply proof of
the descent, my family will erect a statue in their honor. (I doubt, however,
that they would treat disproof quite so generously.) He was married to Anna
Maclin on Jul 23 1770 in Brunswick County, Virginia.
67.
Anna Maclin was born about 1755 in Brunswick
County, Virginia. She died about 1789 in Amelia County, Virginia. Children
were:
i.
Maclin Cross(32) was born about 1771
in Amelia County, Virginia. He died in Aug 1860 in "River Hill," Jackson
County, Alabama.
ii.
Sally Clack Cross(33) was born about
1773 in Amelia County, Virginia. She died after 1859 in Louisiana.
iii.
John Bolling Cross(34) was born about
1775 in Amelia County, Virginia. He died on Jun 8 1852 in Humboldt, Tennessee.
iv.
William Cross(35) was born about 1777.
33 v.
Dorothea (Dolly) Cross.
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