Person Sheet


Name Rachel Collins533, C452
Birth 1747, Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex Co., De.
Death Feb 26, 1833
Father John Collins
Mother Edy Unknown
Spouses
1 Jesse Watson Sr.533, W325
Birth 10 JAN 1743/44, Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex Co., De.
Death Oct 20, 1832 Age: 89
Father Bethuel Watson , Sr. (1710-1797)
Mother Elizabeth Smith (~1714-)
Marriage abt 1771, Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex Co., De.876
Children Nellie (~1780-)
Notes for Rachel Collins
Sussex County, Delaware Probate Records, 1680-1800  (Ancestry.com)
Primary Name: John COLLINS
Will Made Date: 25 Jun, 1775
Heirs Name: wife Edy; sons John, Hancock and Andrew; daus. Elizabeth Collins, Edy Townsend (wife of Elias), Rachel Wattson (wife of Jesse) and Mary Tatman (wife of Mitchell); grandson John Tatman (son of Mitchell)
Exec/Trus Name: wife Edy and son John Collins
Wit Name: William Hazzard, Jonathan Millman, Michael Millman
Will Probate Date: 29 Dec, 1776
Will Book: Arch. vol. A65; Reg. of Wills, Liber C
Page: 182-183; folios 60-62
Comment: [Note:--Arch. vol. A65, page 183 shows the estate was settled by John and Ada Collins; also mentions legacies to David Smith]
Notes for Jesse (Spouse 1)
Assessment list of 1785 for Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware:
Issac Watson
David Watson
George Watson
Wm. Watson
Joseph Watson
Jesse Watson
Richard Watson
Thomas Watson
Luke Watson
Robert Watson
Bethuel Watson
source: "HISTORY OF DELAWARE, 1609-1888", by J. Thomas  Scharf, A.M., LL.D.

Bethuel Watson, son of Isaac Watson, who patented land in Sussex County in 1785, lived in Cedar Creek Hundred. Jesse Watson, son of Bethuel, married Rachel Collins, and their son Beniah came to Milford, and engaged in the mercantile business. He took his son Curtis into partnership with him, and after his death, in 1844, Curtis and his brother Bethuel engaged in merchandising until the latter died. Curtis S. Watson not only engaged extensively in merchandising at home, but also in the export trade. As many as twenty ships traded from this port then, and large quanties of quercitron bark, which brought as high as ninety dollars per ton in Europe, were exported.

His life is worthy of more than passing notice. He was born December 9, 1809, in Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware, three miles south of Milford. His grandfather Jesse Watson was a native of the same hundred, where he lived and died, at the advanced age of ninety years, and his grandmother at eighty-seven years. Jesse Watson had three sons, Jeremiah, David and Beniah, and one daughter, who married and moved west. Beniah, the youngest son and the father of Curtis S. Watson, early in life learned the carpenter's trade but after his marriage with Elizabeth Shockley, engaged for a time in farming in Cedar Creek Hundred, and owned a saw-mill, which he operated. The children of Beniah and Elizabeth Watson were Curtis S., Catharine, Ann, Bethuel and Beniah.
source: Scharf, Thomas J., "History of Delaware, 1609-1888", Volume Two- pp. 1182-1200

1820 Federal Census  (Ancestry.com)
WATSON, Jessee   000001-00001
1 male 45+
1 female 45+
STATE: DE
COUNTY: Sussex
LOCALE: Cedar Creek Hundred
ROLL #: M33-4
IMAGE #: 280
PAGE #: 344

1830 Federal Census  (Ancestry.com)
WATSON, Jessee   00000000001-0000000001
1 male 80-90
1 female 70-80
STATE: DE
COUNTY: Sussex
LOCALE: Cedar Creek Hundred
ROLL #: M33-4
IMAGE #: 280
PAGE #: 344
Last Modified Aug 20, 2006 Created Sep 2, 2006 using Reunion for Macintosh

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