Contributed by Carol G. Borchardt at c.g.borchardt@verizon.net
© July 22, 2008
Source: Sumner County Lawsuit #7002
We being duly elected impaneled sworn and charged by the coroner of the County of Sumner as a Jury of Enquest to inquire how when and in what manner Stephen W Pitt came to his death the first eleven do say on our oaths that one Archibald Stewart on the 2th day of December 18?? in the county aforesaid with force and anger the said Archibald Stewart did then and there feloniously willfully deliberately and with mallis aforethought with a certain pistol kill and murder against the peace and dignity of the State and the last named juror Wilson Meirs(?) do say that the aforesaid A Stewart did kill and murder the said S W Pitt in self defence (Given and tendered by us this the 3 day of December in 18??.
Robr J Thomson coroner
Sumner County
Signatures of :
W Bursby Foreman (Seal)
S W Handy (?) Shelton (?) (Seal)
W Lind (?) Sr (?) (Seal)
Alford Ing (Seal)
???????? Boling (Seal)
Lemuel G. Byram (Seal)
John Marlin (Seal)
James Glidewell (Seal)
Jacob Link (Seal)
William Martin (Seal)
Jno. T. Roney (Seal)
Wilson Meirs (?) (Seal)
Notes: 1. This report is indexed in the Sumner County records for 1849. However, that date has to be incorrect since a coroner’s inquest would take place as soon as possible after a person’s date of death, not many years later. It is very difficult to read the last two digits of the year in both instances in which a date is shown in the above text – the first digit could be a 1 or a 4; the second digit could be a 3, 4, 7, or 9 (the numbers 3, 4, 7, and 9 were often written with the bottom part of the number extending well below other numbers in the same series). Records in the Loose Records Section of Sumner County records, which are identified as belonging to Stephen Pitt and his estate (Loose Estate #222), show that Stephen Pitt was alive as late as July 1813 and dead by as early as November 1814. Given that the Enquest report was submitted on December 3, he must have died on December 2, 1813.
2. Stephen W. Pitt (1784 – 1813?) was the son of Henry Pitt (1764 -1845) and Zilpha Coleman (1760 - >1840). He married Nancy Gambling (1793- <1855), the daughter of James Gambling, Sr. (1752-1843) and Mary Stalcup (1752-1850), on January 11, 1809 in Sumner County, TN. They had two children – Hawkins C. Pitt (1810-1874) and Eliza (or Elizabeth) Pitt (1811/1813 - ??). Nancy Gambling Pitt married Champion Terry (1783/93- 1852) on December 9, 1817 in Sumter County; they moved to Livingston County, Ky before 1820, taking her children with them.