Alderson Weeks^{[1, 2]}

1745 - 1809  (64 years)

• Name	Alderson Weeks
  Birth	1745	, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	27 Feb 1809	, Bedford, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I27943	Master
  Last Modified	11 Oct 2017

  
  

  Family	Jane Lawrence,   b. 1753, , Stafford, Virginia, USA d. 1814, , Bedford, Virginia, USA (Age 61 years)
  Children	+ 1. Margaret "Peggy" Weeks,   b. 1784, , Bedford, Virginia, USA d. 27 Apr 1844, , Bedford, Virginia, USA (Age 60 years)  [Father: natural] + 2. Nancy Weeks,   b. 2 Jan 1786, , Bedford, Virginia, USA d. 5 Oct 1860, , Bedford, Virginia, USA (Age 74 years)  [Father: natural]
  Family ID	F7049	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	10 Oct 2017

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1745 - , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA Death - 27 Feb 1809 - , Bedford, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Rev. Alderson Weeks (c. 1745 - 1808) The third child and son of William and Mary (Alderson?) Weeks of Westmoreland County, Virginia, was born about 1745. Married to Jane Lawrence?. The established church and religion recognized by the Colony of Virginia was the Anglican Church, or Church of England. A tax was levied for the support of said church and for establishing congregations throughout the colony. In the mid 1700s, the Baptists stoodup against this law and many Baptist preachers were arrested by warrant and imprisoned. Alderson and several other Baptist ministers in Farquier County were arrested during the late 1760s - early 1780s. (Please see Sanders/Saunders family history.) Religious Persecution During this period Alderson and George Weeks converted to the Baptist faith, and Alderson became a licensed Baptist minister, laboring at the Chappawomsick Church (established 22 November 1766) in Overwharton Parish, Stafford County, Virginia, but not before a warrant for his arrest was issued:20 “The ministers are Rev. Mess. D. Thomas and Daniel First who have to their assistants Mess. Philip Spiller and Alderson Weeks; the last has been taken on a warrant for the word of God and the Testimony of Jesus but not imprisoned. . . . “The civil powers also threatened them and issued warrants against some, particularly Mess. Spiller, Weeks and others: but having obtained help of God they continue to this day.” For a period of time Alderson was the minister of the North Fork Church, a member of the Ketocton Association, and is remembered to have been a “preacher of acceptance and usefulness.” “Mr. Weeks, the first pastor of this church, moved to Bedford, and there has the care of a church. We presume it is the same man,” so wrote Semple in his history of the Baptist in Virginia. The Chappawomsick Church held the belief that playing cards and drinking were not acceptable.21 This church endured through a period of great persecution. Robert Ashby and his gang consisting of around 40, came to harass the Chappawomsick congregation during worship in which they bust through the door as bears; but some members of the congregation who were stout men, took Ashby by the neck and heels and threw him out of the church; his gang engaged the Baptists assembled in a bloody fray. On another occasion, they threw a live snake into the midst of the church.22 On another occasion Charles Williams led a riot, but being reproved, he ran home to get his gun and shoot the pastor. When he produced the gun it was struck out of his hand, then he proceeded to use his fists that resulted in a bloody fight.23 On 22 November 1766, Alderson was with Phil Spiller and Rev. David Thomas, at the Brentown Branch of the Chappawomsick regular church. Five years later Alderson’s brothers, George and William, with their families, joined the Chappawomsick Baptist Church. The membership roll of Goose Creek Baptist Church, located in Loudon County, Virginia, list Alderson and Jane Weeks from 1775-1779. Military service Family tradition through the descendants of George, state that both George and his brother, Alderson, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Alderson’s record is in the Fauquier County Minute Book for 1775-1783, under the October Court of 1779 states:24 “These men were recommended as fit and proper persons to be Militia Officers: (total four companies) . . . John Hathaway as Captain, John Barker as 1st Lieutenant, Wm. Heale as 2nd Lieutenant, Alderson Weeks as Ensign.” It would appear that Alderson traveled a great deal as a minister, and might have been a “circut preacher.” He is listed in the tax rolls for Faquier County, from 1782 - 1787. Alderson at this time owned three slaves.25 An indenture dated 23 February 1782, between Thomas Owsley and wife of Loudoun County, and Alderson Weeks of Fauquier County, both Virginia. After the war, Alderson obtained land in Loudoun County, Virginia, where Alderson bought land and built a church at Bare/Bear Creek. The congregation named itself the North Fork Primitive Baptist Church. They met as early as 1784, and a building erected ten years later, with Alderson as the first pastor. He left the area around 1793.26 An Anderson Weekes is listed as the minister of record on 24 May 1795, for Mark Anthony and Sarah Henry Tate, in Campbell County, Virginia, and again listed in 1798, two in 1802.27 By 1810 the Weeks family was living in Bedford County, Virginia. Here the Quakers of the area came to him for marriage and registration for years, and is listed many times marrying couples inThe Encylopedia of Quaker Genealogy. Also the neighboring county of Campbell has him on a list for 1782-1810. Rev. Alderson Weeks Will “3-191 Alderson Weeks will dated 30 November 1808, probated, 27 February 1809. wife Jane to have the home part of the home place, etc;, son Elijah to have the other part, to 5 daughters, 1 Susanna Garret, deceased, her children, Alderson and Rison Garret., 2 Ceila Weeks, 3 Polly Weeks, m. Benjamin Wright, 4 Peggy Wade, 5 Nancy Wade, son-in-law, Archibald Wade.” Jane passed away in 1814, for on 14 January 1814, her son, Elijah, inherited the home place from his mother. Alderson and Jane (Lawrence?) Weeks had six children. CHILDREN 1. Elijah Weeks - Born about 1772 in Loudoun County, Virginia. Married 29 May 1802, to Margaret Thompson in Campbell County, Virginia. (P.100, married by father.) 2. Ceila Weeks - Married Elijah Weeks (first cousin, son of George). 3. Peggy Weeks - Married 1st on 23 December 1800, to Jeremiah Wade; 2nd on 28 July1803, to Farthing Hix. 4. Susanna Weeks - Married ??? Garret. 5. Polly Weeks - Married Benjamin Wright. 6. Nancy Weeks - Born 2 January 1786, Loudoun County, Virginia. Married 5 December 1803, to Archibald Wade, in Bedford County, Virginia. She died in 1861. Obiturary: Nancy (Weeks) Wade (1786 - 1861) “Departed this life in the 75th year of her age, Sister Nancy, wife of Brother Archibald Wade, Sr. She was born on the 2nd day of January 1786 He father was Elder Alderson Weeks one of the Founders of the Difficult Creek Baptist Church of which he was Pastor. She was united in matrimony to Mr.Archibald Wade to whom for 57 years she was a helpmate in spiritual as well as temporal things. The fruit of this marriage was 14 children, 13 of who 11 daughters and 2 sons she lived to see married and and settled in life and better still to see all but two on their way to heaven. The subject of this notice in 1808 was baptized into fellowship of the Difficult Creek Church by Elder William Davis of which she continued a worthy member until by letter she united with Other Church under the care of Elderesse Witt. Her beloved husband having expressed a hope in Christ was baptized by the Pastor into the fellowship of the same Church. Sister Wade was a most Exemplary Christian. Truly it might be said of her she lived the life of a Chrisian. Religion was not with her a mere form or ceremony or something put on for the occasion but a substantial living reality. The Bible was the Rule of her Faith and practice. It was her custom to read a portion of the Word of God every day. She spent much of the Holy Sabbath in searching the living oracles for hidden treasure which make wise unto salvation. She read the Bible through some 42 times. She was a great advocate for family prayer. In the absence of her husband and even sometimes when he was present she led in family worship. Truly the posterity of such a woman must needs be pious. Although her voice lifted up in prayer will be heard no more upon Earth, her example lives and will live forever for shebeing dead yet Speaketh. May her aged husband now almost upon the verge of the tomb and her numerous descendants follow her as she followe Christ and finally share with her in the Bliss of the Redeemed in Heaven. G.W.L.”28 A year after the death of Alderson Weeks, Archibald Wade died and left his wife a widow. She remarried on 26 October 1809, to William Overstreet, with her uncle George Weeks as the posting the sureity bond. For the children of Nancy (Weeks) and Archibald Wade please see the Wade family history. ENDNOTES 20 Semple, (1810) p. 307. 21 Chappawomsick Baptist Church Records. (Fredericksburg Public Library, Fredericksburg, Virginia.) 22 Morgan Edwards works. 23 Morgan Edwards works. 24 Joan W. Peters, compiler, Military Records, Patriotic Service, & Public Service Claims From The Faquier County Virginia Court Minute Books 1759-1784. Volumes I-III. (Westminster, Maryland: Willow Bend Books, 1999) V.1, p. 58. (FHL-USA/CAN 975.5275 M2p v.1.) 25. Virginia Tax Payers, 1782-1787, Surnames V-W, p. 134. Online 25 May 2007, http://www.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/ifa_image.cgi?IN=002017&PN=134&SEC=Virginia%20Tax%20Payers%2C%201782-1787&CD=510. 26 North Fork Primitive Baptist Chuch Records. (Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia.) 27. Lucy H. M. Baber & Hazel L. Williamson, Marriages of Campbell County, Virginia. (Lynchburg, Virginia, 1971. P. 8. His first marriage in Bedfords County, Virginia, is recorded as 10 November 1795; Online 25 May 2007, Bedford County, Virginia marriages, http://www.rootsweb.com/~vabedfor/bedf-m_c.htm. 28. The Wade Family History. (Roanoke Public Library, Roanoke, Virginia.)

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=115220499&pid=118 [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=115220499&pid=125