The Bishop Family: A Petition to Partition in Ross County, Ohio

It's been a while since I posted. I am currently working on my husband's Bishop line.

I found this notice in the Scioto Gazette, a newspaper published from 1835 to 1854 in Chillicothe, Ohio, which is in Ross County.[1] Family names that were searched in this newspaper were GORRELL, SHOTTS, and BISHOP. What brought my attention to this article was Mary Shotts’ name along with her husband, Daniel Shotts. These are my husband’s paternal 2nd great-grandparents. Mary’s maiden name was Bishop.

Notice.

“Notice,” Scioto Gazette, 18 Jan 1838, p3,
GenealogyBank.com
(http://www.genealogybank.com : 17 Nov 2014).

JACOB BISHOP, of Ross county, Ohio, hereby gives notice

To David Bishop, who resides in Indiana, Amos Bishop,

Mary Shotts, late Mary Bishop, and her husband, Daniel

Shotts, Eliza Toops, late Eliza Bishop, and her husband Tho-

mas Toops, and Catharine Bishop, all of whom reside in Ross

county, Ohio; Daniel Bishop who resides in Ross county, Ro-

bert Bishop who resides in Ross county, Elizabeth Terry, late

Elizabeth Bishop, and her husband ------ Terry, who resides in

Kentucky, Margaret Moore, late Margaret Bishop, who resides

in Indiana; the heirs and legal representatives of Henry Bish-

op, dec’d., their names and residence unknown; the heirs and

legal representatives of Mary Stagnor, dec’d., late Mary Bishop,

their names unknown, supposed to reside in Pickaway and Ross

counties; the heirs and legal representatives of Jacob Bishop,

dec’d., their names unknown, some reside in Ross, some in

Hardin county, the residence of others unknown; the heirs and

legal representatives of George Bishop, dec’d., who reside in

Kentucky, their names unknown; the heirs and legal repre-

sentatives of John Bishop, dec’d., they reside in Ohio, their

names or counties in which they reside not known; that a

petition was filed by him on the 13th day of January, 1838, in

the Court of Common Pleas, Ross county, in the state of O-

hio, against the above named parties, wherein he demands par-

tition of the following real estate situate in Huntington town-

ship, Ross county, Ohio, bounded and described as follows:--

Beginning at a white oak, ash and hickory, south-easterly cor-

ner of survey, No. 2912 and No. 3816, running thence North

50 W. 144 poles to a beech and sugar tree; thence South 4 ½

W. 13 poles to a beech, thence S 8 W. 10 poles to a sugar

tree; thence N. 50 W. 190 poles to a red oak, beech and dog-

wood; thence N. 50 W 102 poles to three sugar trees; thence

N. 40 E 200 poles to a sugar tree and hickory; thence S. 50

E. 54 poles to the beginning; containing one hundred and fifty

acres, more or less; and that at the next term of said

Court, application will be made by the petitioner for an order

that partition may be made of said premises.

CREIGHTON & BOND, A

There appeared to be a lot going on in this notice of court action. There are a lot of names, some familiar and not so much. It is about a petition filed by Jacob Bishop

“on the 13th day of January, 1838, in the Court of Common Pleas, Ross county, in the state of Ohio, against the above named parties, wherein he demands partition of the following real estate situate in Huntington township, Ross county, Ohio”

Then the property is described as:

Beginning at a white oak, ash and hickory, south-easterly corner of survey, No. 2912 and No. 3816, running thence North 50 W. 144 poles to a beech and sugar tree; thence South 4 ½ W. 13 poles to a beech, thence S 8 W. 10 poles to a sugar tree; thence N. 50 W. 190 poles to a red oak, beech and dogwood; thence N. 50 W 102 poles to three sugar trees; thence N. 40 E 200 poles to a sugar tree and hickory; thence S. 50 E. 54 poles to the beginning; containing one hundred and fifty acres, more or less;

I think I have figured out who the first set of people listed are:

David Bishop, who resides in Indiana, Amos Bishop, Mary Shotts, late Mary Bishop, and her husband, Daniel Shotts, Eliza Toops, late Eliza Bishop, and her husband Thomas Toops, and Catharine Bishop, all of whom reside in Ross county, Ohio;

David Bishop, Amos Bishop, Mary Bishop Shotts, Eliza Bishop Toops, Catherine Bishop, and Jacob Bishop (the petitioner) are children of Frederick Bishop and Susana Cress.

The next set of names that were separated by a semicolon are:

Daniel Bishop who resides in Ross county, Robert Bishop who resides in Ross county, Elizabeth Terry, late Elizabeth Bishop, and her husband ------ Terry, who resides in Kentucky, Margaret Moore, late Margaret Bishop, who resides in Indiana;

These are some of the children of Henry Bishop and Catherine Schreyer. Frederick Bishop was also a son of Henry and Catherine Bishop. I have 11 children born to Henry and Catherine, however not a Daniel. Perhaps Daniel is a middle name for one of the sons or I have missed one of the children.

The next sets of names separated by semicolons are heirs of deceased children:

·         the heirs and legal representatives of Henry Bishop, dec’d., their names and residence unknown;

·         the heirs and legal representatives of Mary Stagnor, dec’d., late Mary Bishop, their names unknown, supposed to reside in Pickaway and Ross counties;

·         the heirs and legal representatives of Jacob Bishop, dec’d., their names unknown, some reside in Ross, some in Hardin county, the residence of others unknown;

·         the heirs and legal representatives of George Bishop, dec’d., who reside in Kentucky, their names unknown;

·         the heirs and legal representatives of John Bishop, dec’d., they reside in Ohio, their names or counties in which they reside not known;

By 1838, Henry Bishop and wife Catherine have died; Henry in 1830 and Catherine in 1836.[2] Children of Henry and Catherine who have died included:

• Frederick, the father of the first set of names, died in 1819.[3]
• John, 1809[4]
• Henry, 1832[5]
• Jacob, 1819[6]
• George, 1835[7]
• Mary, 1834[8]
• David, 1856[9]
• Robert, 1875[10]
• Margaret, unknown
• Elizabeth, unknown
• Nancy, unknown

This newspaper notice gives clues as to the location of the children of Henry & Catherine Bishop.

Name	Names of Heirs	Heir Location
Frederick	David, Amos, Mary Shotts, Eliza Toops, Catharine	Indiana and Ross County.
John	unknown	Ohio, counties unknown
Henry	Unknown	unknown
Jacob	unknown	Some in Ross Co, some in Hardin, some unknown
George	unknown	Kentucky, counties unknown
Mary Stagnor	Unknown	Pickaway & Ross counties
David
Robert		Ross County
Margaret Moore		Indiana
Elizabeth Terry		Kentucky
Nancy
Daniel Bishop		Ross County

There was no information about two of the children of Henry and Catherine: David Bishop and Nancy. Is it possible that the Daniel Bishop who was listed could be a misprint and really David? And could Nancy be one of the other daughters? John F. Bishop, whose Family Group Sheet I have did list a Nancy Bishop between Mary Bishop and Elizabeth Bishop. But there was no vital information. Other vital information came from some family bible.

So what is this land that Jacob wants partition? And why hasn’t it been dealt with before? Henry had died in 1830 and Catherine in 1836.

On 6 Jun 1832, George Bishop, John Long, and Thomas McCann presented to court $250 to bind themselves.[11] George Bishop was appointed Administrator of the estate of Henry Bishop. Previously on the 5 Jun 1832, that letters of administration be granted to George Bishop on the estate of Henry Bishop, deceased. The motion accepted that the widow, Catherine was incapable of administering owing to infirmity of age. The court also ordered that Daniel Grubb, Samuel Thilboron and Isaac Bradford, freeholders appraise the personal property of Henry Bishop, deceased.

The appraisal was conducted 25 Aug 1832 and the public sale was 29 Nov 1832 and the bill of sale was included in the probate package. She received a total of $103 and 73.5 cents. The bill only showed a list of items and value but not who purchased the items.

There was no mention of land in the estate papers. The next task is to search for land records for Henry Bishop before his death and what became of the land after his death. With this description as listed in the newspaper notice, it should be simple to compare to the land purchases and sales of any Bishop land. The land records for Ross county are not digitized on Familysearch.org yet, so the microfilms will have to be searched at the Family History Library next month when I’m there.

---

[1] “About The Scioto gazette,” Chronicling America (http://www.chroniclingamerica.gov/lccn/sn84024214/ : accessed 15 Dec 2014).

[2] For Henry’s death, "Find A Grave," database and digital images, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com), Memorial# 35869435, Bishop Hill Cemetery, Ross Co OH, Heinrich "Henry" Bishop. For Catherine’s death, "Find A Grave," database and digital images, Find A Grave  (http://www.findagrave.com), Bishop Hill Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ross Co, Ohio, Memorial# 97926638, Catherine Schreyer Bishop.

[3] Weekly (Chillicothe, Ohio) Recorder, digital image, Genealogybank.com (http://genealogybank.com), "Died," 15 Sep 1819, p 35, obit of Frederick Bishop.

[4] Estate of John Bishop, 1809, Ross Co, Ohio.

[5] Estate of Henry Bishop, 1832, Ross Co, Ohio.

[6] Family Group Sheet, Henry Bishop & Catherine Strawyer, created by John F. Bishop, Carmichael, CA.

[7] Family Group Sheet, Henry Bishop & Catherine Strawyer, created by John F. Bishop, Carmichael, CA.

[8] "Find A Grave," database and digital images, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com), Memorial# 97928283, Bishop Hill Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio, Mary Bishop Stagner.

[9] Family Group Sheet, Henry Bishop & Catherine Strawyer, created by John F. Bishop, Carmichael, CA.

[10] Family Group Sheet, Henry Bishop & Catherine Strawyer, created by John F. Bishop, Carmichael, CA.

[11] Ross County, Ohio Probate Records, 1832, Henry Bishop packet #529, familysearch.org  : accessed 26 Nov 2014.

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