Our Genealogy Prior to John Stepp, Sr. II:
A Brief SummaryBy William W. Stepp
Comments:
1. The English John Stapp above is our probable ancestor. He may have spent time in the Colony of Virginia but if so, he returned to England because we have proof he died there.
2. "The Stepp Chronicles" research team found that an Abraham Stapp married a Dorothy North in 1678 (Deed Book 7, page 168). We were unable to document this Abraham as being the same as the Abraham who married Dorothy Moss but it is fair to assume that both are the one and the same. If so, both wives were named Dorothy and his marriages occurred in 1678 to North and in 1685 to Moss. We have no way to verify how many of Abraham's children were born during his first seven-year marriage. We would assume the first three children would be from Dorothy North.
3. We have conflicts on Joshua Stapp, the assumed brother of Abraham. The above birth and death dates are from the Scalf Book and from our team member. Our team researcher (and descendant of Joshua) found his will dated 23 December 1689 and probated in 1695, administrator, Ann Stap. According to this, Joshua -- if it is the same Joshua (since both were in Henrico County, we can assume both Joshuas are the same) would have died at the young age of 36 years. This is assuming the birth date of 1659 to be correct. We are not making that assumption. We accept the ca 1650-1695 dates of William E. Stepp, Jr., his descendant.
Comments:
1. We found James in King William County, Virginia. His name was sometimes spelled Step or Stepp as well as Stapp. By 1735 James Stapp was residing in Caroline County, Virginia. He was awarded a judgment in the Caroline County Court in 1736 (Stapp vs. Munkas).
2. We were unable to ascertain the name of the wife of James. We know he was married and had at least three and probably more sons -- William, James, Jr. and Richard. James, Jr. was in Caroline County Court in 1737. In 1747 a "mulatto bastard was bound to" Richard Stapp. We could not document any other children but considering family sizes of those days, there were no doubt others.
3. James Stapp purchased and sold land in both King William and Caroline Counties. In 1743 he had fallen upon hard times. In that year he was compelled to surrender all property and was included on the list of Caroline County debtors and took the "pauper's oath." We do not find further information as to death date or removal.
4. We will follow some of the descendants of Joshua Stapp, Sr., b. 1688, d. 1783 because some of Joshua's descendants stayed very close to the descendants of our James, b. 1693.
5. We can assume the daughter, Rebecca Stapp, was the daughter of Abraham's second wife, Dorothy Moss and this Dorothy's parents were Robert and Rebecca Moss. She was, no doubt, named for her mother.
Comments :
1. Information on James Stapp was hard to come by. We were able to find all that Mr. Scalf's researcher found (Scalf Book, pages 18 and 19) but little else. Most of our findings are detailed on the previous chart.
2. During our years of research we came to the firm conclusion that we had a missing link -- a missing Stepp -- one that would link our John Stalp, Sr. I with one of the six sons of the original Abraham Stapp, 1650-1714.
In late 1983, Karen Witt, a team researcher, documented the above William Stalp as the father of Henry Stalp I, b. 1759, d. 1815. She verified that Henry Stalp I married his ward shortly after he became her guardian. It was not until February, 1984, that we were able to confirm that this William Stalp was also the father of our known ancestor John Stalp, Sr. I. We found the will of William Stalp, discussed in the next flow chart.
3. William Stalp was and is our missing link. The only task remaining was to ascertain which son of the original Abraham (from sons Abraham, Jr., William, Jacob, Joshua, Sr., Joseph and James) was the father of our William Stalp. Mr. Scalf's researcher, Rudolph Bowie Stepp, had intensively researched all six sons, we knew. We checked his research and found, for the most part, only what he had found. After this process of double checking, we started on a process of elimination and came up with the following: Our findings agreed on Joseph, William, Jacob and Abraham, Jr. -- there was no marriage or descendant evidence from these four sons. If one or more of them did marry and leave descendants it was far away from the "haunts" of our clan. Rudolph Bowie Stepp had researched the "most researchable" son to the "Nth degree" -- Joshua Stepp, Sr., b. 1688, d. 1783, and married Martha Coffee. No name or person surfaced in that clan that could have been our ancestor. Age-wise, Joshua, Sr. could have been the father of our William (Joshua, Sr., b. 1688, our William, b. 1715). But Joshua, Sr. had no son William. This left only James, b. 1693. Dr. James Stepp of Manchester, Iowa had told this writer we came from a James Stepp. We verified the research of others and found that he had married. His wife was not named in the few available documents. We verified two sons easily, James, Jr. and Richard (see previous flow chart). In those days, no married couple had only two children. There had to be more and one of those has to be our William because none of the other five had been or could be the father of our William. We had made our connection. The search was over.
Comments :
1. Both John Stalp, Sr. I and his brother Henry are listed in the 1790 Rockingham County census -- with "7 white souls" and "3 white souls," respectively--denoting John has five children and Henry one child.
2. Their father, William Stalp, made his will and died in 1773. He mentions his wife Elizabeth and all six of his children. Henry, at age 14, was left an orphan (they were so called at time of father's death even though the mother was alive and well). Will of William in Vol. III of Abstract of Records of Augusta County, Virginia (Augusta was a huge county and including Rockingham County at the time).
3. We have not been able to trace William Stalp's route after leaving the land of his father, James Stapp, b. 1684. Because of the "Wellington Connection," we can safely assume he followed the route of James Stepp, Sr. I -- son of John Stapp, Sr. who married Ann Solmon and left five orphans -- into North Carolina. We can also assume they were in North Carolina ca 1750-1760. We do not know whether William's six children were born in North Carolina or after he removed to Augusta/ Rockingham County, Virginia. William made his will and died in 1773 when Henry was just 14 years of age -- in Augusta County. It is likely Henry and perhaps several of the others were born in Augusta County. Both John Stalp, Sr. I and Henry Stalp show for the first time on the Rockingham County tax roles in 1783 -- with Henry at age 24 and John at age 44.
4. From the D.A.R. Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution, #1451,: "The heir of John Stepp, deceased, Private -- 640 Acre Land grant -- served 84 months, Gen. Person." Scalf also documents the Revolutionary War service of this same Private John Stepp (top of page 157). The Private John Stepp in both cases is our John Stalp/Stepp, Sr. I. Serving with our John Sr., I was his son, Abraham Stalp/Stepp, b. ca 1758. He held the rank of Sergeant. Also serving with them was Henry Stalp/Stepp I, brother of our John, Sr. I. All three were granted lands in present day Tennessee, which was a part of North Carolina at the time. All three sold their grants, after taking them up, and returned to Augusta (Rockingham County) County, Virginia (see Scalf book, top page 157). We have solid reasoning to claim this Private John Stepp as ours -- for he was with a Henry and an Abraham. And our clan was the only Stalps, Stapps, Steps, or Stepps with the given names of Henry and Abraham (at that time) in all of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina or South Carolina. There was not another Henry until the above named Henry named his own son Henry (Henry II, b. ca 1780 from first wife of Henry I). The second wife of Henry I was Catherine Hoe, his ward, whom he married in 1797. Peter Stalp, brother of Henry II, was another son of Henry I.
5. Tax records show both John, Sr. I and his brother Henry I paying taxes until their deaths in 1803 and 1815.
6. Twenty years after the 1790 Rockingham County census -- the 1810 census of the same county -- shows our John Stalp, Sr. II (son of John, Sr. I) and Henry Stolp II (son of Henry I) in residence with their growing families. The younger brother of John, Sr. II, Jonas, is living with him in this census and has been ever since the death of his father, John, Sr. I. Very nearby in the same census, lives the former Sgt. Abraham Stepp, brother of John, Sr. II and Jonas.
Comments :
1. This John Stolp, Sr. I, b. ca 1738, shows on the 1790 Rockingham County census, the first of the two "Seniors" in our line. The second John Stolp, Sr. II never shows as a "Junior" in tax records even though he was "Junior." Documentation (wills, land transactions) shows John II as the son of John I.
2. We have six children documented as sons of John Stolp, Sr. I. There were probably more.(a) Abraham Stepp is well documented by marriage data of his, and wife Mary's, children.
(b) Adam and Jacob are well documented in the "over 21" age category of personal tax records - 1787.
(c) John (John II), Peter, Adam and Jacob are listed again in tax records and in Capt. Trumboes Co. #10. From this information we know our John II and Peter were "over 16" and "under 21" in 1788, thus being younger than brothers Adam and Jacob.
(d) Jonas Stolp, b. ca 1765-69, d. 1814, was very hard for us to place at first. Not until we had the entire tax history (1780-1850) of the clan, were we able to place him. He lived in brother John's (II) household from 1804 to the time of his death in 1814. He is listed with brother John II in the 1810 Rockingham County census as John and Jonas Stolp. From the tax records, he apparently lived with his father (John I) and was the last child in the house hold. His last year in his father's household was 1803 and there after he appears in brother John's household. We know he died young, even for those days. There is no data to indicate a marriage. We surmise his birth to have been ca 1767 and that would have made him age 47 at his death in 1814. We have no proof, but we also surmise he was crippled or disabled in some manner, hence the dependency exhibited and discussed above.
3. From land transactions, we know the wife of our John, Sr. II was Mary, called "Polly" in some deeds and Mary in other deeds. This was very confusing to us at first because the wife of John Silas Step, Jr. III was also a Mary (Polly) Haga. The "sorting out" of the Pollys became simple when we noted that neither the father, John II or wife Mary (Polly) was literate. Both signed with an "X." John III and his wife Mary (Polly) Haga were both literate since both signed their names.
4. The above Abraham is the former Sgt. Abraham Stepp mentioned in the previous flow chart.
