Child  of "Mary" Wood and Lemuel Lawrence:
   from "Lawrence Family of Virginia" by Joseph D Lawrence Jr
1. Jonas Lawrence 9 Jan 1776 - 19 Oct 1813
     married 1795/7 Charlotte Holland
                dau of Joseph Holland

Child of Mary Battle [Norfleet] and Lemuel Lawrence:
2. Mary Lawrence 27 Oct 1785  - 25 March 1825
     married 31 Dec 1801 Jessie R Cross 7 May 1780 - 4 Nov 1823 NH Co, NC
             son of Cyprian Cross and Christian Riddick

Children of Mary Battle and James Norfleet:
1. Sarah Norfleet ca 1762 Nanse. Co VA - aft April 1819 Greene Co GA
     married 1st Elias Hilliard 
         son of William Hilliard and Anne Newsome
     married 2nd Col. William Horn as his 4th wife
         son of Henry Horn and Ann Purcell?
2. John Norfleet ca 1765 Nanse.  VA - 1790 NH Co NC dsp
 In 1780, when  James Norfleet died intestate in Virginia, the Law of Primogeniture was still was in force. Accordingly,  John Norfleet inherited his father's entire estate. John came of age late in the year 1786. By 1790, John had sold all the property inherited from his father in Nansemond County, Virginia (537 acres) and Gates County, North Carolina. However, that same year, John did acquire 640 acres of land from his step-father, Lemuel Lawrence. This land had previously been acquired by Lawrence from James Tatum on 28 April 1789. The land was then located in Davidson County, in the Middle Tennessee area of North Carolina (Tennessee did not became a separate State until 1796). The indenture, dated 29 July 1790, states that the land was located:
"……between the Clay Lick and the Battle Ground in the head drafts of Sycamore." 
Unfortunately, before he could depart for Tennessee, John died intestate in the latter part of 1790.
3. James Norfleet 14 Sept 1767 Nanse.  VA - 2 Sept 1846 Robertson Co TN
   Pursuant to a 1784 Act of the NC General Assembly, the real property of John Norfleet would have been inherited by his surviving brothers, i. e., Major James and Cordall.  Cordall was still a minor at the time; since he was now an heir to real property, a guardian would have to be appointed for him. There is an entry in the Northampton County Court Order Book (June Court, 1793) indicating that "Cordy Norfleet" had chosen Randolph Maddra to be his guardian. On 18 January 1790.  James appeared in the Tennessee County Court to prove, by oath, the 640-acre land conveyance from James Tatum to Lemuel Lawrence (see above). This means that Major James must have arrived in TN after the Tatum-Lawrence land transaction of 28 April 1789 but before his 18 January 1790 court appearance. He probably arrived in the Autumn of 1789, thus making him the first Norfleet to enter Tennessee. Thus, James arrived in TN before his older brother, John Norfleet, acquired the land from Lemuel Lawrence in July 1790.
  After the death of his older brother, John, late in the year 1790, Major James inherited half of John's 640-acre property. Brother William already being dead, the other half went to Cordall Norfleet. The land John Norfleet had bought from Lemuel Lawrence was on the waters of Hollis Mill Creek in what is now Robertson County.
  Major James apparently also acquired an additional tract of land in the Middle Tennessee area. By an indenture, dated 16 August 1791, Nicholas Tiner of Northampton County, North Carolina conveyed 274 acres of land in Tennessee County (then also part of North Carolina) to James Norfleet of Northampton County. Major James did not retain this land for long, because, on 27 September 1796, Major James, then of Robertson County, sold this same 274 acres of land to his brother-in-law, Isaac Dortch, also of Robertson County. The land was then located in Montgomery County TN. Today the land is located in Stewart County TN and the indenture is recorded in Book B, page 346 of the Stewart County land records.
  The first documentary evidence of Major James's military service is a Mero District militia roster (roll of Captain John Rains's Company of Mounted Infantry) which shows him entering service on 14 April 1793, as a Private. In September 1794, Major James participated in the Nickajack Expedition sent to attack and destroy the Cherokee towns of Nickajack and Falling Water. James served in the company which had been raised in the Port Royal area by James Ford (the biological father of Philip Ford Norfleet). Ford himself did not go on the expedition, but placed his troops under the command of Captain William Miles. The expedition was successful and the back of Indian resistance to the Middle Tennessee settlements was broken.
  after the end of the Indian wars, James entered politics; he was elected as a representative for Robertson County to the Tennessee 2nd General Assembly (1797-1799). He was elected to the 3rd General Assembly (1799-1801), as a senator, representing both Robertson and Montgomery Counties. In 1813-1817, he again represented Robertson County in the House, during the 10th and 11th General Assemblies. In January 1798, Governor John Sevier commissioned him as a Justice of the Peace for Robertson County
  Major James was a surveyor as well as a successful farmer and merchant. In 1796, in his capacity as one of the town commissioners, he drew the plat for the new Robertson County Seat, Springfield. For several years, he and fellow Commissioner John Young issued and signed most of the deeds for town lots sold in Springfield.
  In 1811 he surveyed and built a grist/saw mill on the Sulphur Fork, which he retained until the time of his death in 1846. To construct such a mill, the law required that the builder of a water powered mill possess land on both sides of the watercourse. As Major James's land was only on the south bank of Sulphur Fork Creek, he acquired one acre of land on the north bank from his ward, Olivia Polk. Olivia was the first cousin of James Knox Polk, eleventh President of the United States. The mill was known as Norfleet's Mill until 1853, when it passed into the hands of owners who were not members of the Norfleet family. The mill continued in operation until 1963, having been of service to the area for 152 years. It had been known as Hill's Mill since 1937. In 1967, the mill burned and virtually no trace of it exists today 
     Major James's mill was about five miles from the home of the successful planter, John Bell (1750-1820), whose land was located near the Red River and the modern town of Adams. John Bell had come to Tennessee, in 1804, from Halifax County, North Carolina. Back in North Carolina, two Norfleet women, Phereby Norfleet and Absilla Norfleet, had married relatives of John Bell. Phereby had married Joshua Bell, the brother of John Bell; Absilla had married Benjamin Bell, John Bell's nephew. Since 1816, John Bell had purportedly been plagued by a goblin-type of entity, which came to be known as either the "Bell Witch." or "Kate Batts's Witch." The fame of the Witch became so widespread that even Andrew Jackson was said to have visited the Bell household, in about 1819, to experience the "Witch" firsthand. John Bell had been an active member of the Red River Baptist Church since his arrival in Tennessee. However, in January 1818, he was excommunicated for the sin of usury, as the result of a court conviction involving the sale of a slave to a certain Benjamin Batts, whose wife was named "Kate." Some people suspect that the real reason he was excommunicated was due to his involvement with the Bell Witch phenomenon, which had become public knowledge by this time. In December 1820, the "Witch" supposedly killed John Bell. Major James, of course, knew John Bell well; he probated Bell's will in 1821 and was a buyer at the sale of his estate. Unfortunately, there is no record of what he thought about the strange "Bell Witch" entity.
      married in Robertson Co TN ca 1801 Sallie Williamson Lawson d 1821
 In about the year 1801, Major James married his first wife, Sarah Williams Lawson (1769-1821), a niece of Colonel Eppa Lawson. Eppa Lawson (1747-1814) had held the rank of Colonel in the Revolutionary War, hence he was always thereafter referred to as "Colonel Lawson." Eppa Lawson's wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Elias Fort, the patriarch of the socially prominent and numerous Fort family. Elias was an active member of the historic, old Red River Primitive Baptist Church and his son, Sugg Fort was the Clerk and later (1816) became the Pastor of the Red River Church. Eppa Lawson's plantation and that of Elias Fort both adjoined the farm owned by Major James. Major James had five children by Sarah Williams Lawson. 
      married 2nd aft 1821 Jane Bailey they had one child
4. William Norfleet ca 1771 Nanse VA - ca 1790 Tennessee Co TN dsp
  James was apparently accompanied on his trip to TN by another brother (William). The brothers settled in what was then called Tennessee County, but which would, in 1796, become Robertson County. William was apparently killed by Indians soon after his arrival [see the 1891 memorandum of Julius Allen for details]
5. Martha Battle Norfleet ca 1772 Nanse  VA - aft 1850 Montg  Co TN
            removed to TN   1795
      married in Edgecombe Co NC 1795 Isaac Dortch
           son of Isaac Hilliard and Molly Dortch.
6. Cordall Norfleet 1777 Nanse. VA - 3 Oct 1834 Montg  Co, TN
             removed to TN  about 1798
      married in Montgomery County TN Dec 1799 Mary Pennington
Back in Gates County, North Carolina, Cordall had learned the carpentry business as an apprentice (bound in February 1789) to Henry Lee. In Tennessee, he put this skill to good use as partner in a sawmill business. For many years, he and Joseph Woolfork operated a saw/grist mill on the Red River, just above Port Royal
Source: Phil Norfleet's Web Site

  07 December 2009