Ancestors
Polly Hight
b. 1783 · Taliaferro County, Georgia
Born 1783, Virginia
Mother: Howell Hight Sr.
Children include Benjamin
Polly Hight was born in Virginia about 1783, a daughter of Howell Hight, who brought his family down to Harts Creek in Warren County, Georgia. Her legal name was Mary, and the census taker wrote it that way. She married Benjamin Crenshaw, another Virginian, and their son Benjamin was born about 1805. Their daughters Ann, Elizabeth and Mary married two Allens and a Baker, and their sons Henry and Joseph lived to see their father's will.
When her father died early in 1821 his will left "my daughter Polly Crenshaw" a woman named Maria and her children, and an eighth share of the estate. Her sister Sally had also married a Crenshaw. Her grandson Howell Crenshaw, born in 1832, carried her father's name.
In 1850 she was sixty seven and living with Benjamin, eighty, on their thousand acres in Warren County. Her brother Howell Hight, sixty, was in the house with them. Her son Benjamin had died before then, and his four children were in Sumter County. That summer her husband died. She took her thirds under his will: three hundred dollars in money, four promissory notes he had been holding, and the real and personal property left to her for her life or her widowhood. She signed the receipt herself in October 1851.
Children
Benjamin Crenshaw Jr. (b. 1805)
Sources
TALIAFERRO COUNTY WILL BOOK. The seventh clause of the will of BENJAMIN CRENSHAW reads: "I give to my Grand Children, they being the Children of my son BENJAMIN CRENSHAW DECEASED, Three negroes, Bob, Olive & Mary and one lot of land drawn in Early County No. 331, 21 District Containing two hundred and fifty acres more or less, and it is my will and desire that my executor should take charge of and hire those negroes and not to be taken from Warren or Taliaferro Counties, whenever any of those children shall become of age then the said negroes..." The sixth clause gives to "my daughter Mary Allen".
So the testator outlived his son. The four grandchildren are the four the 1850 census of Sumter County found living in another man's house.
THE EXECUTOR'S RETURNS NAME THEM ALL. Linton Stephens, executor, returned this on 8 January 1853: "...the undersigned Harper acting in right of his wife DELILAH A. E. HARPER FORMERLY DELILAH A. E. CRENSHAW and the undersigned Williams acting in his capacity of Guardian for HOWELL, LUCY ANN CRENSHAW and MARY AMANDA CRENSHAW." Signed SAMUEL G. HARPER and ANDREW J. WILLIAMS, witnessed by Wm J. Moore, John H. Harper J.P., S. R. Crenshaw and William A. Ray J.P. A second return of 25 May 1853 repeats it and adds that Bob, Olive and a child were "delivered to Andrew J. Williams & Samuel G. Harper legal representatives of the Children of Benj. Crenshaw Jr decd".
That is the proof. Delilah is named, by her maiden name and her married name in the same clause, as one of the four children of Benjamin Crenshaw junior, deceased, and her husband is Samuel G. Harper. Nothing here is an inference.
THE WIDOW. The 1851 and 1852 returns pay "Mrs POLLY CRENSHAW" three hundred dollars "under the will of the deceased", and turn over to her four promissory notes, two on Joseph Allen and two on Henry Crenshaw, which her husband held at his death. Her own receipt of 27 October 1851 begins "Received of Linton Stephens Executor of my deceased husband Benjamin Crenshaw". She is the testator's widow, and therefore Delilah's grandmother.
THE PEOPLE IN THE SEVENTH CLAUSE WERE NOT PROPERTY AND THE RECORD IS KEPT AS WRITTEN. Bob, Olive and Mary were left to these four orphaned children, and the returns show what that meant in practice: Bob hired out to Michael Ward, who was allowed the price of an extra pair of shoes for him; a coffin bought from Patrick Burke for a dead child of Olive's, and a midwife, both charged against the children's account; Doctor Alfriend and Reid paid nine dollars for attending Bob through 1852. Olive's child died in the care of an estate that was counting the cost of the burial. Warren County, Georgia, Will Books 1798-1852, Georgia Probate Records 1742-1990, FamilySearch image 3:1:3QSQ-G93T-87ZB.
Warren County, Georgia, Wills 1798-1852, pages 58-59, Georgia Probate Records 1742-1990, FamilySearch image 3:1:3QS7-893T-8Q4V. Proved in the Warren County court of ordinary, 5 March 1821 (minutes, FamilySearch image 3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-499J-P).
United States Census, 1850, Warren County, Georgia, household 393, line 26, NARA M432 roll 86; FamilySearch 1:1:MZYD-LJ7.
Will of Howell Hight Sr., Warren County Wills 1798-1852, pages 58 and 59 (FamilySearch image 3:1:3QS7-893T-8Q4V). 1850 census, Warren County, Georgia, household 393 (FamilySearch 1:1:MZYD-LJ7). Will of Benjamin Crenshaw, Warren County, 1850, and the executor's returns in the Taliaferro County probate records.
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Cite: Heirology, "Polly Hight (b. 1783)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/polly-hight-1783-97c674.