Per another researcher, William Christopher
Fleet, a son of William
Fleet,
Junior and either his first wife Ann
Temple or his second wife Susannah
Walker (which mother is correct for William Christopher
Fleet?), had a sister named Ann Nancy
Fleet (not to be confused with the other sister named Mary Ann
Fleet who married a Mr. Pendleton, as I recall). Ann Nancy
Fleet married Christopher Tompkins/Tomkins (born about 1739), and their daughter (almost certainly), Ann(e)
Fleet Tompkins, married Charles
Browne (born 1777). Charles
Browne was almost certainly the known son with that name of
Bennett and Mary (Hill)
Browne (who married in 1775; Mary Hill was a daughter of a Leonard Hill), and hence, this Charles
Browne was almost certainly a brother of the Sarah
Browne (a KNOWN daughter of
Bennett and Mary (Hill)
Browne) who was the second wife of William Christopher
Fleet.
Charles and Ann(e)
Fleet (
Tompkins)
Browne had a son who was named Christopher
Tompkins Browne (shown on censuses as "Brown"....Christopher married a Miss
Garnett). One of Christopher T. Brown's daughters was named Ann
Temple Nannie Brown(e)....so that "
Temple" middle name seems to "solidify" that Christopher T. Browne was very likely a descendant on Mrs. Ann (
Temple)
Fleet, as shown herein. Christopher
Tompkins Brown was on the 1830 census in
Essex Co., VA and then on the 1840 census in "next-door"
Middlesex Co., VA. The parents of
Bennett Browne were the wealthy Charles and Priscilla (
Brooke)
Browne of MD.
There was a male in Christopher T. Brown's home in
Middlesex Co., VA in 1840, per the census, who was in the correct age range to have been my maternal gg-grandfather,
Smith W. Brown (and Christopher was the ONLY Brown shown by name on that entire 1840 Middlesex census). DNA testing on living male descendants has shown, however, that
Smith W. Brown (born about 1817) was actually a "blood
Smith" versus a "blood Brown." I believe that
Smith W. Brown was a "
Smith infant/toddler" who was taken-in and renamed by John and Mary (
Bennett) Brown, who married in
Middlesex Co., VA in 1805 (this John Brown was on the 1810 and 1820 Middlesex censuses...and he died before 1830). I have some clues as to whose "biological child"
Smith W. "Brown" probably was....but my research continues on that. I have yet to determine, however, how/if the John Brown who married Mary
Bennett in Middlesex in 1805 was related to the referenced Charles and
Bennett Browne family. If John Brown truly was, in fact, a member of that overall Browne/Brown family, it is possible, I guess, that he was out of one of the three
BROTHERS of
Bennett Browne....but I have done little research on that possibility at this point in time (none of the brothers seemed to come to VA from MD, but a SON of one of those brothers certainly could have).
Note:
Bennett Browne was named for the husband of one of his great-aunts. That aunt (a Miss
Neale) married Richard
Bennett,
Junior, and this "Richard
Junior" was a son of Richard
Bennett,
Senior, who was an early Colonial
Governor of VA. It is not clear how/if the above Mary
Bennett who married John Brown was related to the overall family of
Governor Richard
Bennett. Mary
Bennett was a daughter of Mrs. Winnie/Winifred Bennett....but Winnie's "
Bennett husband" is not known (her husband was dead by at least 1798, when
Winnie married second to a James
Owen in
Middlesex Co., VA).
The DNA of the "
Smith W. Brown family" matches the DNA from the family of the Alexander
Smith who died in
Essex Co., VA in 1696. Alexander
Smith had a neighbor who was named John
Smith (who died earlier in Middlesex in 1669). Some researchers have long-suspected that Alexander and John
Smith were brothers....but we currently have no male
Smith DNA donor out of this John
Smith for comparison to Alexander's family. This early John
Smith had at least two descendants who married into the
Walker family (including a later/younger John
Smith), but I have not yet determined how/if those Walkers were related to the Susannah
Walker who was one of the two wives of William
Fleet,
Junior.
Comments or questions on any of the above? Thanks.
