Life History

Notes

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
  Mary Dossey
  Birth 1807 TN
  Spouse James W. Briscoe
  Spouse Birth 1800 VA
  Marriage AL
  
  James marriage record reports his birth as 1800.  His age reported in censuses later indicate he was born in 1804.  But his mother is reported as dying in 1802.  Did he remember incorrectly when he had been told he was born?  His age reported on the marriage record apepars to reflect the correct birth date.
  
  James Warren BRISCOE
  Birth 1804 in Greenbrier, Virginia
  Death 1 DEC 1862 in Sevier County, AR
  Parents:
  Thomas Huell BRISCOE 1740 - 1809
  Elizabeth Spiller Tackett 1760 - 1802
  Marriage to Mary (Polly) DOSSEY 1820 Morgan Co, Alabama
  --  Bolt Briscoe, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/24453098/person/1521771605?ssrc=&ftm=1
  
  The Greenbrier, Virginia, reported as his birth place was a county in Virgnia, originally formed in the 1700s from Botetourt and Montgomery Counties of Virginia.  Greenbrier is now in West Virginia.  This county border Virginia on the west.
  
  -------------------------
  Memorial of the inhabitants residents in the Cherokee Country relative to the late order for their removal:
  
  To the Honorable the Secretary at War, Your petitioners viewing the calamitous situation in which many of our citizens are placed, owing to an order recently described by the agent for Indian affairs of the Cherokee Nation ordering all intruders on their lands to remove by the first day of July 1819. Your petitioners believing that the same indulgence would be extended to them as has been the constant practice to others in similar circumstances, induced them to settle on the lands lately ceded to the United States by the Cherokees on the north side of Tennessee River nor did the order ever appear until late in the month of May of this year, leaving a removal of the citizens impracticable if not impossible.
  
  Your petitioners are poor but industrious farmers and to deprive them of their hard earnings in the wilderness and thus destroy their labour, where will you petitioners apply for bread for their starving families; this order enforced will involve at least ONE THOUSAND families in total ruins, nor will the evil end here. Your petitioners must subsist somewhere & thus become unwelcome guests to the frontier counties to buy a little support for their starving children. The Indians are not desirous of having the intruders driven from this land North of Tennessee, those being few in numbers, & most of which have taken reservations and are good neighbors, your petitioners therefore knowing the lenity of their government and believing they will take our case into consideration will ever pray:
  
  Brisco, Thomas
  Brisco, James
  Brisco, Wiliam
  --  National Archives, Washington, DC, Record Group 75, transcribed by Wanda Muncey Gant, cited in Briscoe Genealogy, http://www.briscoe.eu/genealogy.htm
  -------------------------
  
  1840 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas, page 11
  Briscoe, James W (no family details)
  
  James was married in about 1820 to Mary Dossey, but in the 1860 census, his wife is named Margarett.  This is Margaret Knauls or Nauls.  No details have been found about Mary Dossey Briscoe's death.  The Briscoe-Dossey marriage is reported above as occurring in 1820 in Morgan, Alabama, which matches other family details.  Some sources reported the marriage as occurring in Virginia.  This may be based on his birth state.  Mary died sometime between the 1850 and the 1854 marriage of James to his second wife Margaret Parker Nauls.  Mary died in Sevier County, Arkansas, where they had lived since about 1837.
  
  James Warren Briscoe
  Born 1804 in Verginia [Virginia]
  Died December 1,1862 in Sevier Co., Arkansas.
  James W Briscoe served as Justice of the Peace In Morgan Co, Alabama in 1836 and also in Sevier Co Ark in 1847
  He had 14 children
  Married Marry Polly Dossey 1820 in Alabama
  Born 1807 in Tennessee
  Died 1851/52 in Sevier Co, Arkansas
  He married Margarett Knauls (Nobles) (Naules) the widow of Taplay Knauls (Knolls) April 15.1854. in Sevier Co, Arkansas
  They had two sons, Hannon W and Joseph Wallis
  She was born Abt 1816 in Tenn. and died July 4,1876 in Sevier Co Ark
  --  Briscoe Genealogy, http://www.briscoe-fam.com/James_w_briscoe/james_w_briscoe.htm
  
  "James W. Briscoe was a Justice of the Peace in Alabama and Sevier Co., Arkansas where he moved in 1837. His son, William Greenberry Briscoe married Sarah Roll [Ralls] there Janauary 11, 1844. ... After the death of his father on December 1, 1861, William G. and his family moved to Groesbeck, Limestone Co., Texas, and later to Robertson County, Texas, where Briscoe built the first gin in the county. His wife Sallie died in 1880. He came to Tillman, Oklahoma in 1904 etc"
  --  "James Warren Briscoe," http://briscoe.eu/James_w_briscoe/james_w_briscoe.htm
  
  1850 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas, 18 October, Madison Township, p 422, Hse/Fam #346
  James W Briscoe 46 M Farmer $0 Real Estate b Virginia [born abt 1804]
  Polly Briscoe 43  Tennessee [born abt 1807]
  Thomas F Briscoe 18 M b Alabama [born abt 1832]
  Nancy E Briscoe  16 M Alabama [born abt 1834]
  Mary O Briscoe 14 M Alabama [born abt 1836]
  Martha Briscoe 12 M Arkansas [born abt 1838]
  Lucinda Briscoe 10 M Arkansas [born abt 1840]
  Emily Briscoe 8 M Arkansas [born abt 1842]
  Perminda Briscoe 6 F b Arkansas [born abt 1844]
  Rebecca Briscoe 4 F b Arkansas [born abt 1846]
  James M Briscoe 2 M b Arkansas [born abt 1844]
  
  Living next door appears to be Polly's father William Greenberry Dossey.  The surname is written here as Dorsey, and there is a young Joseph Dorsey on the page who appears to be William's son.  Family sources spell the name Dossey.  But this would spell the Carolina and southern pronunciation of the name we spell Dorsey.
  
  1850 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas, 18 October, Madison Township, p 422, Hse/Fam #345
  William G Dorsey  60 M Farmer $0 Real Estate b South Carolina [born abt 1790]
  Elizabeth Dorsey 16  F Alabama [born abt 1834]
  Sarah Dorsey 14 F Alabama [born abt 1836]
  
  It looks like the Dossey and Briscoe group moved to Arkansas together.  The age of William Dorsey (Dossey)'s last child still in the home is 14.  She was born in Alabama, which means William moved his family to Arkansas after Sarah was born in about 1836.  James and Polly Briscoe's first child born in Arkansas was Martha, age 12, so born about 1838  They also have a daughter Mary O born in Alabama in about 1836.  This means they moved to Arkansas about 1837, matching the dates for William G Dorsey (Dossey).
  
  Next door on the other side is a 26-year-old William Briscoe, who appears to be the son of James and Polly.
  
  1850 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas, 18 October, Madison Township, p 422, Hse/Fam #347
  William Briscoe 26 M Farmer $0 Real Estate b Alabama [born abt 1824]
  Sally Briscoe 23  F Tennessee [born abt 1827]
  Mary Briscoe  6 M Arkansas [born abt 1844]
  James Briscoe 5 M b Arkansas [born abt 1845]
  Martha Briscoe 4 M Arkansas [born abt 1846]
  -- p 423 --
  Charles Briscoe 2 M b Arkansas [born abt 1848]
  James Briscoe 1mo M b Arkansas [born abt Sept 1850]
  
  In 1854 census, James lost his wife Mary (Polly) and married a widow named Margaret (Margarett) Knolles (Nauls, also Nawl or Nall).
  
  James Warren Briscoe
  Birth 1804 in Virginia, Death 1 Dec 1862 in Sevier, Arkansas
  Marriage to Mary Polly Dossey 1820 Morgan, Alabama
  Marriage to Margaret Nobles Knauls 15 Apr 1854 Sevier, Arkansas
  --  Covar, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/13540452/person/479068?ssrc=&ftm=1
  
  In the 1860 census, we see three of Margaret's children, two sons and a daughter, in the Briscoe home.
  
  1860 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas, 31 July, Madison Township, PO Centerpoint, page 105, Hse #762, Fam #737
  James W Briscoe 56 M Farmer $1000 Real Estate $1700 Personal Estate  born Virginia [born abt 1804]
  Margarett Briscoe 45 F Tennessee [born abt 1815]
  Bethenee Knolles 15 F born Alabama [born abt 1845]
  Charles Knolles 12 M born Alabama [born abt 1848]
  Benjamin Knolles 11 M born Alabama [born abt 1849]
  James M Briscoe 11 M born Arkansas [born abt 1849]
  George W Briscoe 9 M born Arkansas [born abt 1851]
  Hannah [Hannon] W Briscoe 5 F born Arkansas [born abt 1855]
  Joseph W Briscoe 3 M born Arkansas [born abt 1857]

Sources

• 1. Ancestry Trees
• 2. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
• 3. 1850 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas
  • 18 October, Madison Township, p 422, Hse/Fam #346
• 4. Briscoe Family Genealogy
• 5. 1860 Federal Census, Sevier County, Arkansas
  • 31 July, Madison Township, PO Centerpoint, page 105, Hse #762, Fam #737
• 6. Find a Grave Memorial Registry
• 7. 1880 Federal Census, Robertson County, Texas
  • 14 June, District 143, Bald Prairie, page 14B, Hse #110, Fam #111
• 8. Obituaries from Oklahoma
• 9. Arkansas, County Marriages Index, 1837-1957
• 10. Ancestry Trees
  • Anderson2, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/26932610/person/1952805351
• 11. 1860 Federal Census, Polk County, Arkansas
  • 26 July, Sulphur Springs, PO Shetucket, page 87 (scan 681), Hse #603, Fam #598
• 12. Ancestry Trees
  • Covar, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/13540452/person/479068?ssrc=&ftm=1