JAMES WINCHESTER was the third child of William Winchester and Lydia Richards. He was b 5 Feb 1752 in Frederick Co (now Carroll Co), MD, and died on 27 Jul 1826 in Sumner Co, TN. He is buried at the family home, Cragfont, near Gallatin, TN. He married Susan Black.

For several years I have tried to find out more about Susan and her mother who was previously known only as "widow Black". While browsing a stack of lawsuits pertaining to the Winchester, Black and Gibson families of Sumner Co, I found a document which shows that Susan Black's given name was SUSANNAH BLACK. After her marriage to General James Winchester, she apparently shortened her name to Susan.

Prior histories stated that Susan had come to Sumner Co with her mother and brothers, George G. Black and John Black. It was believed that her mother had been married first to a Mr Gibson, and second to a Mr Black, and that by her first marriage she had three children - Roger, Rhoda, and Cynthia Gibson. However, I found a document in Sumner Co lawsuit #591, May 1854, which states that Roger Gibson was the "only son and heir of Jordan Gibson".

Jordan Gibson had come to Sumner Co in 1783 or 85. He was granted 640 acres by the state of NC on 17 Apr 1786, on the north side of Bledsoes Lick Creek. He was scalped by Indians and consequently died in 1787. Jordan left no will, but Roger Gibson, James Odom, and James Harrison requested the court divide Jordan's estate four ways. George Winchester was appointed one of the commissioners to divide the estate. Three of those four parts went to Roger Gibson, James Odom who had married Rhoda Gibson, and James Harrison who had married Cynthia Gibson. It is unknown who the fourth part was intended for, but it is now believed that part probably was for Susan Black's mother. This means the Gibsons were not half-sisters and brother to Susan Black. I had thought that perhaps Susan's mother was a sister to Jordan Gibson, which would explain the close association of the two families. However, a Black family researcher and I analyzed the families and have come to the conclusion that Susan's mother was a daughter of Jordan Gibson, probably by an earlier marriage. This means that Susan's mother, rather than Susan, was the half-sister of the three Gibsons - Roger, Rhoda, and Cynthia.

Furthermore, Lona Koltick, the Black family researcher, has corresponded with another Black family descendant who was able to prove through Bible records that Susan's brother George Gabriel Black had a daughter named Moriah Susan Winchester Black. This is fair reason to believe that Susan's mother's name was Mariah or Moriah Black and that Susan's brother George Gabriel Black had named his daughter for his mother and his only sister Susan who had married General Winchester.

Susan had come to Bledsoe's Lick, TN, in the late 1780's with her *mother and her two brothers, George Gabriel Black (m Jenny McKain in Sumner Co, dau of James McKain, b ca 1766, NC) and John Black. She stated in her widow's pension application on 3 Nov 1851 that she was then age 75. She was born sometime before Nov in the year 1776 in SC (1850 census). Susan also states in her pension application that she "was married to the said James Winchester sometime in the winter or early spring of 1792". This was probably a common-law marriage. An act of the Tennessee State Legislature in 1803 (Act XXXVI, pp 82-83) changed the names of James and Susan's first five children from Black to Winchester. Lucilius, Almira, and Napoleon's last names were changed to Winchester by another act in 1807 (Acts of Tennessee 1796-1830: W [Part 4]: Wilson - Wyrick, Tennessee State Library & Archives).