ATTACHMENT II

ANNESTER: The Mother of James Coffey of Surry County, NC

(Rev. John Chenault Version)

 

MEMO: Following received from John Chenault (Jault3@aol.com on May 13, 2007. Sent to Fred Coffey)

 

"Hi Fred Coffey, I am John Cabell Chenault, 93 year old retired minister of First Christian Church, Frankfort ,Ky. Seventy-five years ago today, I preached my first sermon as a 19 year old seminarian. I am still rather active, in fact I was headed to the golf course in an hour when I found your message to Donna and Gus Mellick who are working on a new 35,000 name Chenault directory. This was such an exciting  e-mail that I shall postpone the golf to get on it immediately.  I shall try to forward to you my recent letter to the Mellicks, Carolyn Sue Chenault and Christopher Errol Shinall in which I state my theory about our Coffey connection. 

 

"Richard Stanley Harsh of Winchester, our best genealogist had given his views in a book on the Chenaults about eleven years ago.(Unfortunately Stan died last June--a tremendous loss to all of us.)  He believed that our ancestor, Stephen Chenault II, son of our ancestor from France by way of the Netherlands and from England on the Nassau in 1771, had married Anstes, daughter of Edward and Ann Powell Coffey, and had sons--Stephen III, William , Benjamin and John. He considered the possibility that he might have married Ann (Annester) but ruled that out because of Annester's base born child, James, for which cause she was called before the court in 1736. Ann did not marry until after her mother, Ann's death in 1744. Now we know through a Merchant's account record in King and Queen County in the mid 1700s  that "Anniester"  married a "Chinault" after her mother's death and in time to have mothered our William Chinault in 1749. So it seem more than probable that she married Stephen Chenault II and THEY were the parents of our ancestor, William.

 

"I have had a DNA test a few years ago, in an attempt to ascertain if the family tradition that our David Chenault, William's eldest son, could have had a relationship to Thomas Jefferson. Therefore my DNA test is the one, I suppose, that led to your inquiry about our possible connection. My test did not show relationship to Thomas Jefferson.  If it should help to discover my relationship to the Coffey family and help us work out this enigma, that will be greatly significant! 

 

FOLLOWING EXTRACTED FROM THE LETTER JOHN WROTE TO SUE CHENAULT AND OTHERS:

 

     "We have all been wrestling with the Chenault-Coffey connection and especially with Stephen II and William, born in 1749, who came to Kentucky in 1786. What can we put in the new Red Book?   Where does William fit in the numerical order? That is a tough one!

 

     "I thought I would share where I am right now, until some one comes up with other evidence.

 

     "I am going more an more to the position-- since our former view that William was the son of Sarah Waller and John Chenault in Caroline County has been disproved-- that Col. Thomas Brown was correct when he said "We know his mother was a Miss Coffey".  I believe that Stephen Chenault II and "Anniester Chinault" were his parents. I know that she was near 40 years of age, and Stephen II was 46 or 47; but I believe that is not biologically impossible. (More below on this)

 

     "Regarding Anstes Coffey, genealogist say that Anstes married a Chenault.  (I am omitting the debate over Anstes and Austin, as there is no doubt in my mind that it was Anstes, a girl, in her fathers will, and not "Austin". I conclude that Anstes, as the early Coffey genealogist, James Buford Coffey held, that Anstes married a Chenault,  Stan believed it was Stephen Chenault II, which is my conclusion too.  They were the parents of Stephen III, William and Benjaman. Then I have wondered if Anstes must have died. This made it possible and probable that her sister, Ann or "Anneister", after the death of her sister, Anstes and her mother, Anne Powell  in 1744, must have married Stephen Chenault II. How else could 'Anniester Chinault" have appeared in the Merchant Account book in King and Queen County in the mid 1700s? What other Chenault could have married her? Give me any other answer you may have.

 

     "A FEW POINTS TO BE NOTED   We knew nothing about our Essex County, Coffey connection prior to the Chenault Notes which Ann Brown Rogers of Frankfort gave to me in the late 1980s. Ann Rogers is a great, great granddaughter of William, born in 1749-two generation closer to my 4th great grandfather than I am to him. Her great grandmother, Nancy Chenault, was William's daughter, born in 1790. Her son, Thomas Brown, born 1819, six years after the death of William, must have gotten his impressions from his mother, William's own daughter. He told us that he never heard of William having brothers and sisters. William would have had half brothers, but he did not grown up in the home with them.  Thomas Brown said Williams parents died when William was quite young. This was probably the occasion for William's going to Albemale where Annester's brother, thus his uncle, John Coffey and his aunt Jane Coffey lived. John's son Thomas Coffey and his wife Elizabeth were charter members of Lewis's Old Meeting House, the first Baptist church in the county. They, I imagine, took William to their church. He may never have joined there, but there is record that he contributed financially to the building of their first meeting house. Stan Harsh noted this in his excellent life of Andrew Tribble, and Stan told us that William and his family joined Tribble's church when they got to Kentucky.

   

       "The big problem with this is that Stephen II and Anstes already had a son "William", so it is not likely they would name another William' unless the first William had died. I have considered that Annester was very close to her half brother, William Doolin. William Doolin named a daughter, I think, for Ann Ester, and I have wondered that there could be a possibility that Ann Ester named her son for her half- brother, "William Chenault " at his birth in 1749. It is probable that Stephen II did not live to know his son, or that he died very soon after the child's birth. I say this on the basis that Stan did not find him recorded in any document after 1747. Ann Ester was probably rather dependent on William Doolin in her bereavement. Also, we have already considered William's move at an early age to Albemarle to her brother, John and Jane Coffey.

 

         "Stan 's approach was to find William's Coffey connection through John. I think that is out. Moreover, Stephen II and Anstes had their first three sons considerably earlier than William's birth.  Ann Ester afforded Stephen II a second chance to have been William's father. Again, apparently he married the two sisters. Again it is possible, I believe, that they could be William's parents. The additional evidence that Stan referred to could be the discovery of "Anniester  

Chinault".

 

         "Regarding the ages of Stephen II and Ann Ester, Col. Thomas Brown himself did not father his son, Waller Chenault Brown, father of Ann Rogers, until he was 63 years of age. That is just two generation after Stephen Chenault II.     

 

         "Well, if this is not our answer, what next?

 

         "(Sue) pointed out to me one time the various consideration of the facts related to Stephen Chenault III and Mary Rowzie. I should like to have these before me for comparison.  I cannot recall just what you said .I am only trying to look at all the possible answers. Maybe we want to present the various alternatives.  The Sarah Waller answer was so convincing for Stan and for me for a long time. It evidently was wrong.

 

      "For what it is worth, this is where I am right now.

 

 John C.