Five women called Bess on Lansquinet

In the 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Lansquinet plantation, six individuals were listed with a mother called Bess: Tabia (b. 1776), Joe (b. 1788), Charles (b. 1794), Eliza (b. 1801), Cordelia (b. 1810) and Edward (b. 1814). The 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases', the only one that provides dates, records the birth of another Eliza (b. 29th of March 1818), who was described as Mulatto, and the death of Joe on the 13th of January 1818. The 1823 return recorded the younger Eliza's death at the age of four.

Assuming that the women called Bess and Bessy were always kept distinct from one another (let alone the women called Bett, Betty, Betsy, and so on),  there were five women in the 1817 register called Bess who could have given birth to some of these children. I'm using letters here to distinguish between them:

- Bess A, whose age was estimated as 67 (b. 1750). If the age estimates were correct in the 1817 register, Bess A was between 26  and 51 when Tabia, Joe, Charles and the older Eliza were born. By the time Cordelia was born in 1810, she was 60, and past her child-bearing years.
- Bess B, whose age was estimated as 65 (b. 1752). She would have been 24 when Tabia was born and 49 when the older Eliza was. At 58, she would have been too old to be Cordelia's mother.

 Only Bess A and Bess B were old enough to have been  the mother of Tabia. For possible children for Tabia, see 'Tabia of Lansquinet'.

The death of a woman called American Bess was recorded in 1823. If her name was correct (she was elsewhere called American Betty), she must have been either Bess A or Bess B. See 'American Bess or Betty of Lansquinet' for her other possible children. 

- Bess C, whose age was estimated as 45 (b. 1772). She could have given birth to Joe was she was 16 and to all of the younger children, and is thus included in the trees below and to the right. She would have been 46 when the younger Eliza was born.

 

- Bess D, whose age was estimated as 41 (b. 1776). It's unlikely that she gave birth to Joe when she was 12, but she was 18 when Charles was born and could have given birth to any of the younger children.


 

- Bess E, whose age was estimated as 25 (b. 1792). She could have given birth to Cordelia when she was 18, and to the two younger children. This Bess's mother was called Patty (see 'Patty of Lansquinet').

 


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