We are still trying to make sense of why Martin Turpin would show up in Knox County, Tennessee in 1805 (the year that he married Elizabeth Russell in Knox County at 22 years of age) with no other Turpins in sight. Many hold that he was the first of two sons named Martin born to Martin Turpin of Gap Valley, Virginia. The rest of the Gap Valley Turpins ended up in Kentucky. How did our Martin get separated from the rest of the family and end up in East Tennessee?
Could it be that our Martin Turpin had become legally obligated to accompany some other family in their move from Virginia to Tennessee? Could it be that as a minor he had been placed under the legal guardianship of another family?
On May 2, 1797, a person named Martin Turpin was "bound to David Love" for purposes yet unknown in Montgomery County, Virginia. [Source: Lewis Preston Summers' Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769-1800, vol. 1. Johnson City, Tennessee: The Overmountain Press, p. 868.] If this person was in fact our Martin Turpin, he would have been about 14 years old at this time.
There was a David Love born on March 25, 1763 in Augusta County, Virginia who married a Mary Draper on July 9, 1784 in Montgomery County, Virginia. [Source: familysearch.org] If this David Love is the same one to whom Martin Turpin was bound, Love would have been 34 years old at the time. According to Judi K. Ramsey, (Lakewood, California), David Love died April 3, 1827 in Maury County, Tennessee (Middle Tennessee). [Source: familysearch.org]
David Love's father was Joseph Love who settled at Campbell's Station (west of present-day Knoxville) in 1798 and died November 10 (or October 11), 1804 in Knox County, Tennessee. [Source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=1940love&id=I0373 ] Worth Ray's Tennessee Cousins notes that Joseph Love was Sheriff of Knox County and that David Love was Deputy Sheriff of Joseph Love of Knox County [Page 230].
If this is the family to whom Martin Turpin was bound, then it is conceivable that Martin moved with the Love family to Knox County. In 1805 Martin Turpin married Elizabeth Russell.
Did Martin Turpin move to Knox County, Tennessee with the Love family?
About Me
- Dr. J. Randolph Turpin
- I am first a Christian, a husband, a father and a grandfather. I am also a teacher, a revivalist, an administrator, an editor, a writer, a conference speaker, a ministry and leadership development consultant/coach, a genealogy enthusiast, and a lifetime learner.
