Thomas Conway – Possibilities as Sarah Conway’s Father or Brother

I originally wrote this content as my reply to a post on Genealogy.com, and the following is a slightly revised and expanded version of that earlier forum reply.

Rev Thomas Conway:

Original Source: Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 2nd ed., 1885, Butler Co.
“JOHN N. CONWAY, Butler County, was born January 6, 1841, on Big Reedy Creek, …. His father, William Conway, a native of Barren County, Kentucky, was born October 18, 1807, and is still living. He is the son of Thomas Conway, a native of Virginia, a Baptist minister, who was accidentally killed in the construction of the canal at Louisville, Ky., in 1829; his father was Thomas Conway, of Virginia, a celebrated Indian fighter.”

If William Conway of Barren Co., son of Rev. Thomas Conway, was b. in 1807, then it is highly unlikely that Rev. Thomas Conway was the same one born ca 1746, son of Thomas Conway and Elizabeth Mauzy. That Thomas would have been 61 years old in 1807, age 77 in 1829, and certainly would not have been involved with canal construction at that age. I have seen information that Thomas Conway Jr. died in Culpepper Co., VA about 1794 (at age 48).

It is more likely that Rev. Thomas Conway was born ca 1770 or later, and may have been a grandson of Thomas Conway and Elizabeth Mauzy, or perhaps a son of George, since Thomas son of William Conway died Jan 27 1793 in Greene Co., TN, and Thomas Asbury Conway, son of Henry Conway, died in Boone Co., MO on Sept 2, 1835, so neither of those Thomas Conways could be the one in Barren County in 1810 who died in Louisville, Ky in 1829.

Thomas Conway of Barren County appears in various Barren County county tax lists from 1807-1809, and on page 37, line 32 of the 1810 US Census in Barren County. In that census, he is listed as age 45+a dn his wife is also age 45+. They have two daughters under ages 16-25, one son age 25-45, and 3 younger sons, only one under age 10, which was probably the William C0onway born 1807.  By these ages, he was probably about age 46-47 at the time, and born about ca 1762-1763, so about the right age to be a son of the Thomas Conway Jr, son of Thomas Conway and Elizabeth Mauzy, born in 1646, mentioned below.

All of the above notwithstanding, It seems likely that the Thomas Conway of Barren County may not have been the same one who was bondsman at Amos Goodman and Sarah in Greene County, TN, since their son Anselm was, probably from about 1805 thru at least 1807, in the care of Thomas Little in White County, TN. Thomas Little appears in Greene County tax lists in 1801-1805, and in 1820 he lived next to a Thomas Conway in White County, who was most likely the same one who was Bondsman for the Amos Goodman and Sarah Conway wedding. In the 1820 White County census, that Thomas Conway was age 45+, and his wife was age 25-45, so they could not have been the same family that was in Barren County in 1810, where the wife was already age 45+. See: Sarah Conway’s page on this site. I am currently digging into the Thomas Conway of White County, TN to see if I can find out more about his ancestry and family.

A Thomas Conway provided bond for marriage of Sarah Conway to my ancestor Amos I. Goodman in Blount Co. TN in 1801, and they had son Anselm Goodman in Greene Co., TN in 1802, at the same time that William, Joseph and Henry Conway and their grown offspring were in those same counties and on the same tax rolls. In fact the Goodmans and their close Richardson kin had lands on Lick Creek, upstream from the Henry Conway’s lands at the mouth of Lick Creek at the Nolachucky River. However, I have seen that Sarah Conway b ca 1784 daughter of Joseph Conway m. to William Hogan. There is no record of Sarah as a daughter of Henry, though this may be because Sarah may have died ca 1810 in Barren Co., KY, before Henry Conway died in Green Co., TN. Sarah could not have been a daughter of Henry’s son, Thomas Asbury Conway, who married Ann Rector in 1792. I can pretty easily identify Thomas Asbury Conway as the only Thomas in the area and of the right age to have provided bond for Sarah’s marriage to Amos Goodman, but can only surmise from this that she must be a previously unidentified daughter of Henry and sister of Thomas Asbury Conway. Dying before her possible father Henry Conway by several years, she would not have been mentioned in his will, or in the much later Rev War widow’s pension application of Henry’s wife Susannah Conway. Or,

I have this on George Conway:
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“George Conway, a brother of Henry Conway, was of the commission that laid out the town of Greeneville. He served as colonel on the Cherokee expedition of 1793, and was first major-general of the State of Tennessee.” [Excerpt from “The Lost State of Franklin”, 1927 by Samuel Cole Williams (former Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee) The Franklinites, p.310-311].

George Conway was High Sheriff of Greene County, TN 1794-1800. Source: Goodspeed’s History of Greene County TN, and The Imperial Observer, vol 1, #44, dated July 7, 1800: “George Conway, High Sherrif reports by his deputy Henry Conway, that the following lands will be sold for unpaid taxes for the year 1799:
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incl: John Sevier, jun., 3,000 ac., Camp Creek
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Apparently, nepotism did not help John Sevier, Jun., as he was married to Henry Conway’s daughter Elizabeth in 1788!
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George Conway, son of Thomas Conway and Elizabeth Mauzy, died in 1801 in Greene Co., TN. The George Conway on the 1805 Greene Co. tax roll is the son of Henry. George Conway was Sheriff of Greene County, TN 1794-1800.
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