Jeanette's Home Page:Information about William Wiley
William Wiley (d. 1783)
Notes for William Wiley:
Three men of the Wiley name appear in the early land records of Orange County, North Carolina:
1)William Wiley
2)Hugh Wiley
3)Thomas Wiley, Sr.
Of these men, William and Hugh appear to be brothers;Thomas Wiley, Sr. appears to have been a son of Allen Wiley
WILLIAM WILEY came to North Carolina about 1754 from Pennsylvania In September 1758, he received a Granville grant for 640 acres of land. On 22 February 1759, he received another Granville grant, this one for another 640 acres of land situated on both sides of the north fork of the Great Alamance on Birch Creek, surveyed 16 August 1756; the land lay in Orange County, North Carolina.At the same time he bought 636 additional acres on Birch Creek on both sides of the Quaker Road, this property having been entered 10 June 1756 and surveyed 13 August 1756.He was identified as William Wiley of Orange County, North Carolina; all of these tracts were in that part of Orange County, North Carolina, that was later to become Guilford County. In November 1760, he sold 640 acres of this land to William Forbis. Various other land transfers are recorded and appear in the Orange County, North Carolina, Deed Books and in theMinutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.
In 1756, William Wiley was well established in Orange County in the section that is now Guilford County; in that year he was named an overseer of the road.In March 1757, he was appointed a Commissioner;7 and on 15 May 1765 he was granted a License to keep a Tavern at his dwelling.8 In September Court 1757, he recorded the mark for his livestock,9 served on the jury in November 1760,10 and was involved in several lawsuits.
On 28 April 1763, William Wiley and his wife Mary sold to Arthur Parr for 30 pounds, 640 acres of land on the west side of Haw River, the same land that was granted William Wiley on 23 May 1758, with Thomas Donnell and William Hamilton as witnesses.11 William Wiley was administrator of the estates of Arthur Parr, in 1765, and William Forbis.
In 1771, the part of Orange County in which William Wiley lived became a part of the new county of Guilford, and he therefore became a resident of Guilford County. (John Hill Wheeler erroneously gives the date as 1770, and the error has been perpetuated by subsequent historians. See the Legislative Acts of the General Assembly.)
William Wiley was of that number of brave patriots who were Regulators, and in 1768 he had signed a petition from Orange County inhabitants to his Excellency William Tryon, Colonial Governor of North Carolina, asking that the Justices of the Peace be empowered to give debtors and creditors a three months' stay of execution.By 1776, he was a Lieutenant of the Rangers in GuilfordCounty. The DAR defines a ranger as one of a mounted troop who saw military duty on the frontier.
Family history says that the wife of William Wiley was Elizabeth, maiden name Ferguson.If this is correct, then he married a second time, for the Orange County deed of 1763, as well as a Guilford County deed (Book 1, p.130) dated 12 February 1772, show William Wiley and wife Mary selling property, in the latter case 250 acres of land to Thomas Cummings in Guilford County, formerly Orange.
The Rowan County, North Carolina, deeds show that John Hallam received a Granville grant for 330 acres of land on both sides of Meare's fork of Haw River adjoining William Wiley on 27 August 1762.15 They also show that William Wiley was an executor of the will of Samuel Nelson in 1765.16 They show that Arthur Parr and his wife Margaret sold Richard Wright of Orange County half of the property that was William Wiley's original Granville grant, that the followingyear Richard Wright and his wife Ann sold the property to Harmon Husband for
12poundsmore than they paid for it, and that on 2 January 1767, three years later, Harmon Husband and his wife Emey [sic] sold the property for twice what theypaid for it.17 Harmon Husband was the leader of the Regulators.
The date of William Wiley's death cannot be established exactly. On 9 August 1783, there was a deed from Mary, Robert, and William Wiley, "heirs and executors of William Wiley deceased," living in the settlement of Alamance, to Sampson Stewart conveying 242 acres of land on the south side of a fork of the Alamance River adjoining John Wiley's property for œ 100. This deed was acknowledged in Guilford County Court by Mary Wiley, relict of William Wiley.18 This 1783 tentative date of the death of William Wiley is confirmed by entries in the book of Trial Causes of Guilford County. William Wiley, Assignee, began action to collect a debt against William Forster in 1774. The case was continued from term to term, the last continuance noted being in February, 1783. In August of 1783 the cause was "abated by the death of the Plaintiff." He, therefore, died between February and August of 1783.
No will of William Wiley is on record, either in Guilford or Qrange or Rowan Counties, nor in the office of the Secretary of State, although the fact that some of his heirs were called "executors" would indicate that he died testate, as would the lack of administrative papers. There was once a fire in the Guilford Court House; and while most of the records were saved, many of the wills prior to 1799 were lost. And, as was noted in the Lindsay section, many of the early Guilford records were destroyed by the British troops. Because of the loss,
additionally, of the first ten years of the Guilford County Court Minutes, there is no record there of a will being probated or of executors qualifying.
The deed mentioned above confirms the family tradition that William and Robert Wiley were sons of William Wiley. In addition, there is a Guilford County deed dated 12 May 1775, in which William Wiley sold to his son Robert Wiley for 200 pounds North Carolina money, 300 acres of land on Beaver Creek, witnessed by Robert Agnew and William Peasly (Paisley).19 A similar deed drawn 5 August 1775 shows that William Wiley sold to his son David for 6 proclamation money, part of a 20~acre Granville grant on Beaver Creek with Hugh Wiley, Jr.
as witness.20 This accounts for three of the four sons credited to William Wiley by family tradition, leaving the status of Thomas Wiley uncertain.
Children of William Wiley and Mary Mebane are:
- +David Wiley, b. 1754, Guilford Co., North Carolina, d. date unknown.
- Robert Wiley, b. 1752, d. October 22, 1819, Guilford Co. NC..
- Catherine Wiley, b. 1758, North Carolina, d. 1849, Guilford Co., NC.
- +William Wiley, Jr., b. 1760, Guilford Co., NC, d. October 12, 1838, Hendricks Co. Indiana.
- Elizabeth Wiley, b. 1748, d. 1835, Guilford Co. NC..
- +Thomas Wiley, b. 1749, d. date unknown.