Elizabeth Forbes
Elizabeth Forbes, called Betsey, was born on 5 March 1806 in Tennessee. Her parents are not known.
She married Francis Tidwell in Maury County, Tennessee, at the end of 1826. On 30 December Francis gave bond for a license "to marry Betsey Forbes". A marriage bond was a promise to pay the state a sum of money if any lawful reason turned up why the couple could not marry. It was signed by the groom and a surety, and nothing was paid unless the marriage proved unlawful. Francis's surety was his brother Darling Tidwell. Lower down, the bond names the couple in full as "Francis Tidwell & Elizabeth Forbes".
They stayed in Maury County, where Francis's father Richard Tidwell farmed, for the next fifteen years. Their son William Madison was born at Columbia, the county seat, in 1829. Francis was still selling Maury County land in 1842. By 1850 they had moved to McNairy County, in the far southwest of the state.
She bore at least ten children, the youngest, Mildred, in about 1845. Two sons, Thomas Jefferson and James D., died in 1845, and a son Richard Greenberry died as a small child.
The 1850 and 1860 censuses find her in McNairy County. In 1850 she was forty four, with William, twenty, Lucinda, Lewis, Jonas, John and Milly at home. She was widowed at the end of 1867. She died on 16 October 1875 and was buried at Morris Chapel Church Cemetery in Hardin County, where Francis lay. Her marble headstone is worn past reading.
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Elizabeth Forbes (1806-1875)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/elizabeth-forbes-1806-1875-cbbaf0.